Broken
by ashlynnb14
Summary: Mackenzie was running as far away as she could, hoping to never be found. What will happen when she makes a small detour and a big mistake that lands her in Charming, CA? Will she keep running or find something to stay for?
1. Chapter 1

Mackenzie slammed the car into park and let her head fall onto the steering wheel. Her red hair stuck to her tear soaked cheeks as she tried to breathe and stop the sobbing. She was worn out from the long drive from Texas to California, but she knew she had to be here. She had to get away from him or she would never live past twenty-five. Hopefully he couldn't find her here. She'd been careful to check the car for bugs and leave no trace of her plans behind. For the first time in years, she could almost feel a sense of calm. A light shone in the driver's window, panicking her. Putting a hand in front of the light, she could make out a badge and a radio.

"Are you alright, miss?" Came a warm male voice. Mackenzie rolled the window down a couple inches and inhaled deeply.

"Yes, I think so. Just a little tired." She tried to smile but regretted the sharp pain it sent to her temple where he had hit her the night before. The officer lowered his flashlight and leaned down to eye level.

"I can understand being tired, but you can't park here honey. Why don't you follow me to our hotel and I'll just make sure you get checked in okay?" the man asked softly. Mackenzie smiled back at him, noticing he was a caring looking older man with thinning hair and a warm smile. She nodded and sighed with relief.

"Could you tell me where exactly I am sir? I know I'm in California, but what city?" The sheriff chuckled as he stood straight, grimacing with some level of discomfort. "Miss, I wouldn't go as far as calling our town a city, but as Sheriff, I welcome you to Charming, California." Mackenzie laughed openly and happily at the irony of the name as what she had just left was anything but Charming.

A short drive through the center of town brought her to a two-story motel that looked in need of patrons. She thanked the Sheriff as she came out of the little office with a room key. He waved her off, "No need to thank me. If you need anything at all you just let Marta in there know. She can point you anywhere you need to go and loves to listen." He said with a pat on her hand. "I'm Sheriff Unser and my deputies and I are only a call away should you need us. Welcome to Charming!" He nodded a farewell and got back in his patrol car, pulling out into the darkness of the night. Mackenzie made her way to the hotel room and looked around. It was your basic cheap hotel with a bed, bathroom and small television, but she couldn't be more thankful. Without changing out of her clothes or even taking off her shoes, she curled up on the bed and fell asleep.

Mackenzie woke to the shrill ringing of the phone on the little side table. Groggily, she answered. " 'Ello? Who is it?"

"This is Marta, dear. I was calling to see if you might want some breakfast. We don't have much but I'd be more than happy to make you some toast or something." Mackenzie rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. Eight o'clock on the dot. She groaned and sat up. "Yeah, thanks Marta," she said with a yawn. "I'm going to freshen up first but toast sounds great." Marta yipped with glee and hung up after telling Mackenzie to take all the time she needed.

After a quick shower and blow dry, she went to work on covering up the bruise by her temple. It was healing, slowly, but it looked horrible with shades of dark purple and green. It took a lot of delicate application of concealer and powder, but she had a lot of practice and it was hardly noticeable by the time her hair was down and her mascara on. She grabbed her backpack and prepared to leave, getting back on the road shortly in order to make it to Washington as soon as possible.

Marta seemed let down that Mackenzie was leaving so soon, but graciously gave her a large serving of toast and orange juice. Marta talked about the weather and her family as Mackenzie stayed mostly silent, enjoying the company of the little older lady. After a half hour or so, she stood to leave and say goodbye, but Marta surprised her by giving her a big hug. Mackenzie jumped as a sharp pain from her broken ribs. Marta let go quickly and apologized. "Oh, sweet heart, I'm so sorry. A silly old woman shouldn't go around hugging on broken girls like that! Here, now you take this aspirin. You don't have to go just yet now. You're welcome to stay here and heal up a bit." Mackenzie's eyes started to swell with tears that were fighting her to flow down in cascades. Mackenzie took the aspirin but shook her head, gently rubbing Marta's shoulder. To keep from crying, she left with out another word.

Mackenzie thought about Marta's words as she drove back towards the highway. She knew she was banged up, but for a stranger to see her as broken made her realize just how damaged she was. Tears flowed down her cheeks, causing mascara to blur her vision. In a split second, she wiped her eyes and saw a motorcycle coming right at her. She had veered off into oncoming traffic from her lack of vision. She yanked the steering wheel to the left, slamming hard into the dirt quite a few inches down from the asphalt. Just as she thought she was safely out of the way, her tire blew, spinning her car into the guardrail and to a crashing halt. Her heart was racing and her hands were gripping the steering wheel so tightly it was painful. Her passenger door flew open as a man with graying hair and deep scars on his face reached for her. She panicked and scurried against the drivers' door.

"Damnit, woman ya've got to get out of the car before it blows." Said the man in a heavy Scottish accent. Mackenzie looked through the spider-webbed windshield and saw heavy black smoke billowing out from under her hood. She scrambled for the seatbelt and her bag as the Scotsman grabbed her under the arms and yanked her out of the car. He drug her back away just seconds before the car erupted in a ball of flames. Her ribs screamed with pain as the man pulled her up to her feet. "Are you okay, missy? Ay! Look at me, are you okay?" he brushed her hair from her eyes, unknowingly scraping his leather glove across her injured temple. She winced and bit her lip.

"I think so." She whispered, her voice shaking with shock and pain. She looked over to her car and her knees gave out. Luckily, the man caught her and lowered her slowly to the ground. "I'm so sorry! I could have killed you!" She sobbed. The man stood up and shook his head as he raked his hair back from his face. "Don't worry about that, okay? I've been through a lot worse. Just breathe and sit still for a second." He walked towards his motorcycle and stood it up before pulling out his cell phone. He punched in a few keys and waited. "Ay! Juicy boy, where are you? Aye, well bring the lift out to Highway 16 about five miles northa town. No, I'm fine it a girl. Her car's exploded. What? No, just, I'll tell ya when ya get here." He snapped the phone shut and shook his head as he walked back to Mackenzie. She hadn't moved at all and had a blank look on her face. He sat down in the dirt next to her and looked at the burning car. "So, um. Do ya need to go to the hospital? You seem pretty banged up." He questioned her as she still sat silently, only shaking her head no in response. "Right then." He said.

They sat in silence until a black tow truck pulled up behind them. Mackenzie stood up slowly and looked at the truck as a tan man with a Mohawk and tattoos on his head jumped down from the cab. He jogged up to the Scottish man and slapped him jokingly on the shoulder. "What the in the Hell, Chibs?" Mackenzie raised an eyebrow slightly at the curious name. Chibs, shoved the driver slightly and turned towards the car. "Well, Juice, like I said her car blew up. She was swerving to miss from killing me and this shit happened." Mackenzie didn't really know what to think about the names these men had, but just stayed still, staring at the now smoldering remains of her car. "Uh, were you wanting me to tow the car in?" Juice asked Mackenzie slowly. She turned to him and shrugged, "Is there any point? Can it be salvaged?" Juice cocked his head and looked over the wreckage. "Nope." He said after a moment. "But if we tow it, it will save you littering fines and since you succeeded in not killing Chibs there, we'll tow it for free." He smiled brightly and looked at Mackenzie for permission. She let out a long breath and looked up at the sun. "Yeah, okay. Can I get a ride back to Charming?" Chibs looked over at Mackenzie. "You staying there?" he asked with surprise. Mackenzie explained that it wasn't her choice but she was out of options. Chibs nodded and helped Juice get the car loaded up and secured. She climbed in the passenger side of the truck and waited for Juice. He and Chibs stood outside of the truck talking for a few minutes. Mackenzie noticed Chibs look up at her every so often, but decided she didn't have the energy to care why. A few minutes later, Juice hopped in and they headed back to Charming. He made a couple attempts at conversation, but politely gave up when Mackenzie responded with vague, short answers. As they pulled into the garage, Mackenzie sat up. She looked around and noticed the same grim reaper and scythe on the building across from the garage and on Juice and Chibs' leather kutte.

A mechanic came out of the garage and helped Juice unload the car as Chibs invited Mackenzie into the building with the kutte symbol on it. She hesitated for a minute, but followed him inside, figuring she had nothing else to lose, and she really wanted out of the hot sun. Inside she found pool tables and a large bar across from a wall of what looked to be mug shot pictures under a sign that read Sons of Anarchy. She had never known anyone in a motorcycle club, but Chibs and Juice seemed nice enough, so she took a chance and sat down at the bar. A dark haired girl in tiny denim shorts and a black shirt walked over and took asked for her order. "Oh, I'm sorry I don't have any money I just wanted to sit down." Mackenzie said with embarrassment glowing on her cheeks. Chibs waved his hand over the bar, "Ay, Jessie, get her anything she wants, she's had a rough day." Jessie smiled and nodded as Chibs walked outside. "Try a rough year," Mackenzie muttered, "I'll take a double shot of Jack." Jessie raised an eyebrow but turned to make the drink. "Damn, they forgot to stock the bar, I'll be right back hon." Jessie said setting an empty glass and napkin in front of Mackenzie. As she waited, she laid her head on the bar and thought about the mess she was in. No car, no plan, nothing. "Son of a bitch." She said out loud. She heard a chuckle, "Well, I wouldn't let her hear you call her that. Usually people just call me Jax though." a smooth voice said as the man sat down beside her. She slowly raised her head and looked over at him, "No, I was just," she started to say, but stopped short. Next to her was yet another leather vested man, but he had the bluest eyes she had ever seen. His blonde hair fell into his eyes as his lips parted into a bright, mischievous smile. Mackenzie's heart fluttered for the first time in ages. "Darlin, I was only playing." Mackenzie blushed, "Um, I'm Mackenzie. Broken girl that almost killed Chibs." Jax laughed and leaned back in the bar stool. "You wouldn't believe how many people could say they've almost done that, so don't feel to bad you didn't succeed." Mackenzie laughed and her eyes lit up for a moment like they used to before she met Bryan. She smiled, "Sorry to run but do you have a restroom? I'm sure I look like hell." Jax nodded and stood up. "Follow me, you can use mine" She thanked him as he led her down a hallway past a beautiful blue Harley. She entered a small bathroom through a bedroom full of posters of half naked women and more club patches. After pulling her hair into a ponytail, she splashed some water on her face and cleaned up the trails of running mascara. When she opened the door, Jax was standing at the bedroom door holding a glass of whiskey. He offered it to Mackenzie who downed it in a single drink, causing him to raise an eyebrow and grin. "That didn't last long," he said. She shrugged and walked past him and out to the bar.

The room was more crowded with several new men and a few women as well. Chibs walked over to Jax and drew him into a hug, slapping him on the back. "Jacky boy! Glad you're back brotha" he said with his charming thick accent. Mackenzie sat the glass back on the bar and signaled for two more from Jessie. The bartend obliged and poured herself one as well. As new to motorcycle bars as Mackenzie was, she was no stranger to whiskey, relying on it several times before to calm her nerves or loosen her thoughts. She noticed Jax watching her from across the room and started to wish she had worn something cuter than blue jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. After the third glass of whiskey, she started looking back at Jax every so often. He grinned when he caught her looking and she held his stare. He was surrounded by several of the club members, laughing and seemingly enjoying the night. She finished two more whiskeys and made her way over to him. "Hey, where was that bathroom again?" she held his gaze in hers as a grin grew on his face. Juice snorted as Jax offered to show her where it was. He took her by the hand and led her down the hall to his room again. He walked in and turned on the light for Mackenzie, who proceeded to turn it off and walk up to him.

"Kiss me." She said, taking off her hoodie, leaving only her bra covering her chest. He moved in and kissed her aggressively as he wrapped his arm around her waist. She moaned with pleasure as he pressed her up against a chest of drawers. The pain in her ribs panged a little even through the whiskey but she ignored it. She hadn't had this much fun in years, even if it wasn't the most responsible thing she'd ever done. Jax grabbed her up from the floor and moved over to the bed before dropping her down beneath him. She winced a little, but he didn't notice as she was removing his belt and pants. She felt him smile as she stroked him over his boxers. From that point on she threw caution to the wind and enjoyed a few rounds of hot, powerful sex before passing out in his bed.

When she woke up a few hours later, he was sitting up in bed, half naked, smoking a cigarette. She groaned as the exercise and activity of earlier ached in her ribs now that most of the whiskey wore off. Jax looked over at her and sat his cigarette across a beer. "Is that from the wreck?" He asked gesturing towards her ribs. She looked down and touched them gingerly. "Something like that," Mackenzie said, pulling the sheet up to cover the discoloration. Jax shook his head and sat forward to look at the other side of her face, "and that to? It looks a little older than a few hours. I guess that's why you wanted to lights off." Mackenzie looked at him and shrugged, "What does it matter? Maybe I just like to hook up with the lights off." Jax shook his head and picked his cigarette back up and resumed smoking. She took a few deep breaths as he waited. "Look, it doesn't matter. I was headed up to Washington from Texas so my fiancé couldn't find me again." Jax stopped smoking and turned to look her in the eyes. "Darlin', he's not going to find you in Charming and if he does he'll be worse off than you are now." He slid his arm behind her shoulders and pulled her closer to him, letting her fall asleep feeling safe, at last.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! Chapter Two is up and I hope you all like it! Reviews are greatly appreciated as I'd love to know what you all think. Of course I don't own any SOA or it's lovable characters, that honor goes to Mr. Kurt Sutter and FX. ENJOY and review!**

Mackenzie woke with a sense of panic. She looked around trying to remember where she was and how she got there. Her ribs were throbbing along with her head, to make matters worse, someone started pounding loudly on the door. Jax Teller walked out of the bathroom, fresh out of the shower, and the events of last night started coming back into focus. She shook her head, questioning how she could have been so reckless. The pounding continued as Jax threw Mackenzie a shirt from his drawer and her jeans she wore yesterday. "Jesus, hold on a fucking minute!" He yelled at the door as he pulled his jeans on while walking over to open it. As soon as he turned the knob, the door flew against the wall, narrowly missing him.

"Don't tell me to hold on Jackson Teller! Clay has been waiting on you for half an hour out at the warehouse, and you're shacked up in here with some piece of ass?" The woman verbally assaulting Jax startled Mackenzie at first with her abrasive tone and wild eyes, but Mackenzie didn't take kindly to being called a piece of ass by some stranger. Jax put his hands up in front of his chest to back the woman off, "Mom, calm down. I was just about to leave. You can't come barging in here like I'm a kid that's late for school. Mackenzie this is Gemma, Mom, this is Mackenzie." Mackenzie tried to match Gemma's glare as Jax ushered his mom out of the room.

He scrambled around the room getting ready as Mackenzie watched him from the side of the bed. Just as he was about to walk out of the door, she noticed him throw on a shoulder-holstered pistol followed by his vest. Her eyes widened, as she hadn't noticed that the night before. He met her gaze and paused at the door.

"Look, I gotta go. You can use the shower in there if you want. Don't worry about her. Just try to steer clear. I'll be back later if you want to stick around." With that, he left, closing the door swiftly behind him. Mackenzie inhaled deeply and looked around the room. She walked over to a corkboard above a small desk and found a cute picture of a couple of little boys, one blonde headed and one dark headed. She picked it up and turned it over, in faded ink she found, Jax and Opie. Smiling, she put it back exactly where it was and kept looking around. There was little more than provocative calendar girls and furniture left to see, so she settled on a shower to clear her mind.

After a long time spent just standing in the searing water, Mackenzie's nerves had subsided. She grabbed a towel hanging on the door and started drying off when she heard loud voices in the distance. Throwing on a clean pair of jeans and a tank top from her rescued bag, she made her way to the bar, putting on her boots as she walked. The voices grew louder as she got closer to the bar, making it easy to listen without feeling like she was ease dropping.

"Look, I don't care who you banged. They guys aren't here and you aren't welcome so turn your ass around and get out." Jessie was yelling from behind the bar at a messy looking blonde girl in short white shorts and a black crop top showing off her midsection. She was standing with one hand on her hip and the other waving a finger at Jessie.

"Who are you to say I can't be here? You call Tig! He'll tell you I can be here. We have a connection." She screamed. Mackenzie looked at her with amusement as she came around the corner. "Who are you? Are you the reason I can't see my Tigger?" The blonde was becoming hysterical at this point, walking towards Mackenzie quickly. Jessie threw her hands in the air and came out from behind the bar.

"Becky, Tig told you he didn't want you around here. That's Mackenzie, she doesn't even know him, so just go, you can try and call him later if it's that important to you." Jessie said in a calming tone. Becky, however was in no mind to be calmed. She threw herself at Mackenzie, fists flying about. Mackenzie kicked Becky's outer thigh hard, knocking her off her three-inch heels and onto the floor. She screamed and threw her bag at Mackenzie in a last ditch effort to win an already lost battle. Mackenzie picked up the bag and walked over to the blonde struggling to get up. She reached down and grabbed her under the arm, hoisting her to her feet and handed her the bag.

"If you come at me again you'll have more than a bruised thigh. Go home and sober up, then maybe you can try calling Tig." Mackenzie added a sympathetic smile at the end, feeling sorry for the mess of a girl she was leading out of the door. Becky sobbed and nodded as she walked out to her car.

Mackenzie walked back to the bar, shaking her head, and sat down. She heard slow clapping coming from the other side of the room. She turned and saw Jax's mom Gemma sitting in the corner sipping from a steaming mug, half smirking at Mackenzie. She stood and made her way to the bar, causing Mackenzie to tense up a little from their earlier encounter. "Well, well it seems you aren't a weak piece of ass at least. Where'd you pull that out of?" Gemma smiled, pulling up a seat next to Mackenzie. "I used to be a cop." Mackenzie said as she stood up and left.

Mackenzie walked out of the gate and headed down to a diner she had passed yesterday on her way out of Charming. It would be a long walk, but she welcomed the solitude. An hour or so after leaving Teller Morrow, she sat down in a booth and waited for the server to take her order. There were few patrons seated here and there, but she could feel their eyes on her. She reached up to brush her hair from her face and remembered she hadn't covered up her bruise. The server didn't meet Mackenzie's eyes as she took her order.

It was the first time she'd ever been out in public without covering her bruises. Somehow, it didn't bother her as much as it would have in Texas, or maybe she just didn't care about opinions anymore. After eating and paying, she started walking back to the clubhouse. A couple of blocks down from the diner, she heard the distinct sound of motorcycles coming down the road. She stopped and watched as they drove by. One rider in the front of the group of ten or so pulled over, followed by two more.

"Hey, do you want a ride?" Jax asked, taking off his sunglasses to look at Mackenzie in the eye. She bit her lip and shook her head. "Come on, darlin', what's the worst that could happen?" Mackenzie rolled her eyes and climbed on behind him, gripping him tight around the waist, acutely aware of the bulk of his holstered pistol.

They pulled into Teller Morrow and Jax backed his Harley in between two others in a line by the clubhouse. She was just giving him his helmet back when Gemma called out for him to come into the office. He slapped Mackenzie on the ass as they parted ways, him to the office and her to the clubhouse. She laughed and swatted playfully at him, relishing in the fun she had long missed having.

She entered the bar and caught the tail end of Jessie's recap of the early afternoon's event. A curly, dark haired biker with a rough goatee walked up to Mackenzie and gave her a tight hug. She inhaled sharply from the pain in her ribs. "Ay, Tig let her go brotha! She's a little banged up from the wreck." Chibs said slapping Tig on the shoulder. Mackenzie whispered a silent thank you to Chibs and laughed as Tig released her.

"You don't know how crazy that bitch is. I'm in your debt for getting rid of her! I changed my number after I broke it off and I doubt she'll want another ass kicking from you." He said, finishing his praise off with a swig from his beer. Mackenzie smiled and assured Tig it was no big deal. Just then, she saw Jax coming up from behind Tig looking serious. He caught Mackenzie's eye and motioned for her to follow him.

Curious to see what changed his playful mood, she followed him into his room. He was sitting backwards in the office chair, his elbows propped up on the back with his fingers laced. Mackenzie's smile faded as she slowly closed the door. She leaned her back against the doorframe, giving Jax time and space. "You need to tell me what you're doing here. You said you're running from your old man, but what cop runs from somebody?" Jax's blue eyes bore into Mackenzie as he waited for a response. She shook her head, keeping her eyes on a piece of carpet that had a small cigarette burn in it. She had asked herself the same question months ago, up until she resigned from the force. It was embarrassing, and a sensitive subject she had never spoken to anyone about. She had the sense the club wasn't completely on the up and up, so she understood his need for interrogation.

"I'm not a cop anymore. I haven't been for a few months. You can go through my bag, I don't have a gun or a badge or even a cell phone. I'm here in particular by accident, nothing more." She raised her eyes to see Jax's soften slightly as he pulled her bag over to him. She gave him time to be satisfied with the contents before moving to sit on the bed.

"That still doesn't explain why a cop, even an ex-cop wouldn't just have the guy hauled off and stay in Texas." He said with a cautious tone. Mackenzie pulled her knees to her chest and exhaled slowly. The more people knew about who she was and who she was running from, the more likely he would find her, but it didn't look like she had a lot of choice this time, and she had started to like Jax.

"It explains it if the guy was the mayor's son. I filed a restraining order and it disappeared from our records. I filed charges and they were dismissed for being incorrectly submitted. The one time I lost control and broke his nose, I was given a sudden two-week suspension without pay for a supposed investigation into a traffic stop involving a seat belt violation. It didn't matter that I had my jaw broken and new bruises every week, he was heir to the city throne and I was just a rookie cop. So, I quit the force a couple of months ago and slowly pulled money out of my savings so he wouldn't notice. I bought a car with cash and I left while he was out hunting with his dad." Mackenzie worked to catch her breath from the emotional toll it took to open up to someone about something she'd been dealing with alone for over two years. She didn't risk looking at Jax for fear of his disgust. She heard him get up and shuffle about for a minute before sitting beside her on the bed.

"Look, darlin'," he said calmly, "I'm not the shiny white knight. If that's what you're looking for then I can help you get a car or something and head on up to Washington. I'm not going to lie, I like you being around and would like it if you stuck around, but all I know how to do is outlaw. You wouldn't have to worry about me or any of the guys hurting you. But you being a cop, ex or not, can't bleed into this. You got to leave that shit behind or you'd be a liability. " he paused and let Mackenzie process his warning for a minute. "So what's it going to be?"

She looked at him, thrown of by the sudden decision she was faced with. She had joined the force to have an exciting career, to be honest she never saw it as a battle against evil for her, just excitement. She knew she didn't need Jax's protection to stay out of Bryan's reach, but rather enjoyed his company. She had thrown caution to the wind the night before and it had paid off ten fold, so maybe it was time for a change.

"I'm not a liability and I'm not planning on going anywhere for a while." She said, testing out a small smile on him. He returned her smile and stood up. "I would still like help finding a car though, and maybe a job." Jax laughed and nodded.

"We'll see what we can do, darlin'." He grinned and walked back out to the bar, leaving the door open for her to follow. She took a deep breath and stood up, following Jax back into the world of bikers and crazy blonde girls looking for some Harley rider named after a Winnie the Pooh character. She couldn't help but smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Mackenzie watched Jax mingle with the other club members around the pool table and started up a conversation with Jessie. They talked about Charming and where to go shopping before the conversation inevitably turned to the men.

"So what made you start working here? You're a great bartender, but you're only customers are the guys and their girls." Mackenzie said, sipping slowly on a soda. Jessie shrugged as she looked around the room.

"I grew up in Charming and always had a thing for bad boys. I tried out other jobs and other bars, but I always spent my free time here, trying to snag a son." Mackenzie raised her eyebrows with intrigue. Jessie laughed and shook her head, "Son as in a Son of Anarchy. Anyways, after a while Gemma offered me the job and I've been here ever since." Jessie went back to wiping off the bar after she passed out a couple of beers to Tig.

"So did you?" Mackenzie asked curiously. Jessie looked at her blankly. "Did you snag a son, as you put it." She clarified. Jessie stopped cleaning and rested her elbows on the bar and scowled.

"Not really. I mean I've hooked up with a couple of 'em but nothing really ever came of it. It's fine though. I guess I don't have to be worried about being tied down." Jessie sighed and tried to smile. "What about you? Everyone knows you hooked up with Jax." Mackenzie blushed deeply and pulled at her hair. She'd never been a one-night stand kind of girl, but from what Jessie had told her about the club, she wondered exactly where she and Jax were headed. "Look, just go with it and have fun. He's a heart breaker, so just don't get in over your head too fast. He loves family, especially his son, but you've got to get lucky and work hard to earn your place." Mackenzie coughed and choked on a piece of ice.

"Jax has a son?" Mackenzie asked Jessie in a hushed whisper. Jessie laughed and put a hand on her hip. She stared at Mackenzie for a few seconds and shook her head.

"Girl, you act like I just told you he had eight kids and a wife at home. Able is Jax and his ex wife's boy, but she's not in the picture." Jessie motioned to her inner elbow like she was shooting up. Mackenzie nodded and looked back over at Jax.

"It's not that, I just didn't really see him as someone that had a family at home. He seems so care free." She said, spinning her ice around with a straw as she thought about it. Jessie just shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Mackenzie, that man is about as far from care free as you can get. It's part of the club life. They fight to live and live to fight." With that, Jessie went back to the stock room and left Mackenzie there with her soda.

The room became much quieter as the guys went into a separate room with huge, leather covered doors. Most of the women took that as a cue and left out. Mackenzie wasn't really sure what to do, so she settled on getting some air and walked out to the garage lot. She found a picnic table and climbed on top of it and took a seat. No sooner had she sat down, Gemma walked over and folded her arms across her chest.

"I see you're still here. Did Jax talk to you, officer?" She spat at Mackenzie. Gemma's eyes bore into her as she pursed her lips.

"I'm not a cop anymore, Gemma. I haven't been for a while. We talked and I'm going to stay around for now." Mackenzie said with a overly sweet smile and layered on her Texas drawl. Gemma rolled her eyes and leaned in close.

"If I so much as even smell a rat, I'm coming for you." She hissed into Mackenzie's face. Then, she pulled back and smiled, sending a shiver down Mackenzie's spine. "You and Jax are coming to dinner tomorrow." With that, she turned on her heel and left, getting into a black suv and pulling out of the lot.

Mackenzie was just pulling out a cigarette when she heard the clubhouse doors swing open. The guys looked serious as they walked briskly to their bikes. Jax saw Mackenzie and paused for a minute.

"We've got to take care of something." He said vaguely, looking away as he tossed his burning smoke onto the ground. "I'll call you on our way back." He leaned down and kissed Mackenzie on the cheek swiftly and joined the others. The air was filled with the roar of motorcycles as they rolled out.

She finished her cigarette and headed back inside, suddenly aware of how tired she was. She went back into Jax's room and curled up under the covers. Before she had a chance to wonder what exactly they had to take care of, she passed out.

Mackenzie's sleep was anything but peaceful as she tossed and turned fighting her demons in her sleep. She woke up swinging to someone's hand on her shoulder. Her fist connected hard with Jax's jaw. He grabbed her arms and pinned them down until she caught her breath, only the reaching up and rubbing his jaw.

"Damn, you put some force behind that one." Jax said with a weak smile. Mackenzie scrambled to sit up and started to apologize. "Hey, don't worry about it. I'll just talk to you to wake you up next time." Mackenzie laid back and stared at the ceiling.

"Why exactly is there blood all over your shirt?" She asked, not looking away from the bikini clad poster girl hanging above her. Jax took off his shirt and threw it into a pile of clothes in the corner. "It's nothing." He said, leaning over her, his hair falling into his face.

Mackenzie knew better than to believe that for even an instant, but his naked chest was intoxicating. His words from their previous conversation rang in her ears as she pulled him down onto her mouth, "All I know how to do is Outlaw." What seemed like an hour later, Mackenzie was sitting up in bed as Jax slept, one hand under his pillow on the gun she knew was there. She looked over and saw a laptop sitting on the desk and slowly climbed out of bed.

Logging on as a guest, she pulled up her email account and started checking for any correspondence about the sale of her condo. There were dozens of emails from Bryan that she deleted without even opening, but nothing from her real estate agent. She rolled her eyes and signed out before closing the laptop and getting back in bed. Jax shifted slightly as she laid her head on his chest.

Hundreds of miles away in a Texas police station, a detective heard a ping on his computer. He rolled over to check the alert and quickly dialed his captain. Mackenzie Bradshaw had just accessed her computer in a small town outside of Sacramento, California.


	4. Chapter 4

Mackenzie woke up to find herself alone in Jax's bed. She rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. In the distance she heard a lot of shuffling and thumping. She got dressed quickly, borrowing one of Jax's shirts and headed out towards the bar. She raised her eyebrows as she saw the sons carrying bags and heading out towards the door. Jax stopped when he saw her and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Sorry, I was going to leave a note or something but we're in a hurry. We gotta make a run. I should be back Sunday afternoon." He leaned down and brushed a quick kiss on Mackenzie's cheek before walking out to his bike.

She sighed as she heard the motorcycles roar to life, pull out of the garage, and then fade off into the distance. She was about to go back to sleep when Gemma walked in with a little blonde headed boy on her hip. Mackenzie knew it was Jax's son immediately. They had the same eyes and mischievous smile.

"Mind watching him for a couple hours?" Gemma asked as she pulled her sunglasses off. Her tone seemed to make the question more of a demand than a request, but Mackenzie just nodded and took the boy. "Here's his bag. It's got some toys and stuff." She shot Mackenzie a half smile and walked out of the club.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me, little man." Mackenzie said smiling down. "You sure are big! How old are you?" Abel looked up at her and held out his hand, raising two fingers up. Mackenzie smiled and sat him down.

"Swing?" Abel asked looking up at Mackenzie with a toothy grin. Mackenzie laughed and nodded. Abel led the way out to the swing set over to the side of the lot and climbed up in a swing, waiting patiently for Mackenzie to push him.

As she pulled the swing back and let it go, much to Abel's amusement, she winced at the ache on her side. It wasn't a sharp pain anymore, but she was still reminded of that night Bryan came home angry that she had been out with her friends.

She frowned, pushing the swing for Abel and thinking about Texas. Bryan hadn't known it but when she came home that night, she had been seeing her friends for the last time before she was planning on leaving. Bryan accused her of cheating and telling them it was his fault they fought.

"We were just having dinner and a drink. We didn't even talk about you!" She yelled back as he threw a beer bottle against the living room wall. He had jumped up out of his chair and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her. "So I'm not even important enough to talk about? I guess you had your boyfriend with you, fucking whore."

Mackenzie had stopped pushing the swing and Abel had come to stand by her leg. He pulled on the hem of his dad's shirt and looked up at Mackenzie.

"Don't cry! You can swing." He said sticking out his bottom lip and hugging her leg. She smiled at how sweet and innocent Abel was and sat in the swing, pulling him up in her lap. Abel laughed with joy as they swung higher than she was comfortable with pushing him alone in the seat.

A couple of hours of playing and a nap later, Mackenzie was getting their sandwiches from Jessie and carrying them out to the picnic table. Abel followed her and beamed as she let him carry her bottle of water and his juice. They sat together at the table and ate lunch as Abel told her all about his grandma's house. He was telling her about the birdies when he suddenly stopped talking and moved closer to Mackenzie's side. She looked down and wrapped her arm around him.

"What's wrong, Abel?" She raised his head up worried that he had choked on a piece of sandwich. His eyes were wide and doe like. He was looking out towards the garage. She followed his gaze and her heart stopped. She jumped up and grabbed him up in her arms and ran into the club. Jessie was wiping off the bar but stopped when she saw Mackenzie's pale face.

"What's wrong? Is he okay?" Jessie said as Mackenzie handed him to her. Mackenzie didn't say anything in response; she just nodded her head. The door to the club opened swiftly and Mackenzie felt sick. Bryan was standing in the doorway, smiling. Jessie looked at Mackenzie, confused as to what was going on.

"Sweetheart, I'm so glad I found you." Bryan said with sarcasm dripping from each word. Mackenzie backed away from the bar to keep Bryan away from Jessie and Abel. Jessie was staring at Bryan as he advanced towards Mackenzie slowly. She slowly reached behind the bar and grabbed her cell phone, bringing up Jax's number.

"Bryan, you can't be in here." Mackenzie said, trying to bluff. "These guys are going to be back any minute and they don't know you. I don't want them to hurt you." She said, trying to smile. Her bluff didn't work.

"Don't worry, we won't be here long." He said sharply as he lunged at Mackenzie, catching her by the arm and slamming her bad side against the pool table. She cried out and bent forward. Abel started crying as Jessie yelled for Bryan to leave. He ignored her and grabbed Mackenzie by the back of the hair and yanked her head up close to his face. She spit into his eyes and stomped down on his shin. He yelled and let her go just long enough for her to grab a pool cue.

He recovered and looked at Mackenzie as she stood there with the pool cue held back like a bat. "What are you going to do with that? Hit me?" He mocked her as he stalked forward. Mackenzie was about to swing when she heard the unmistakable sound of a handgun being racked. She looked past Bryan and saw Gemma standing behind him, a pistol pointed at his back. He hadn't missed the noise either.

He turned around slowly with his hands out to the side. He laughed a little and turned back to Mackenzie.

"Lady, you aren't going to shoot me any more than Mackenzie is going to hit me." He said with a laugh. He took another step towards Mackenzie when the gun went off.

He fell forward, gripping his calf that was bleeding from Gemma's shot. He yelled and turned towards Gemma.

"If you don't drag your sorry ass out of here, the next one's going through your heart." She hissed at him. He paused for a minute before standing up slowly. He held his hands above his head and limped slowly past Gemma and walked out to his car. Jessie walked back out to the bar from the kitchen, looking back and forth between Gemma and Mackenzie. Abel was hiding his face on her neck.

"I'm sorry Gemma." Mackenzie said shaking. She blamed herself for bringing Bryan to Charming somehow. Gemma shook her head and laughed darkly.

"This isn't on you, sweetie. You can't out run crazy." She said with a grin as she took Abel from Jessie and headed back to the dorms. She came back a few minutes later to find Mackenzie righting the knocked over recliner. "Hey, don't worry about doing that. The guys can take care of it when they get back." She said laying a hand on Mackenzie's shoulder. Mackenzie jerked away and continued straightening the furniture. Gemma shook her head and looked over to Jessie.

"He's asleep. Did he see anything?" Jessie shook her head.

"Not really, Gemma. He heard yelling and cried and hid his face in my neck. I shot a text to Jax and we went back into the kitchen." Jessie said, frowning over at Mackenzie who was putting the pool cue up. She then walked over to the bar and grabbed the towel and sanitizer bucket Jessie had been using earlier and got down on the carpet.

Mackenzie was still scrubbing at the blood when Jax burst through the door followed by Chibs and Juice. He looked at Gemma and then to Mackenzie.

"We couldn't get her to stop. I told her they're carpet squares that we can just replace." Gemma said looking down at Mackenzie with pity. Jax walked over to Mackenzie and put his hand on her back gingerly. She shuddered, but continued scrubbing.

"Darlin, stop. We don't give a fuck about the carpet." Jax said softly, taking the blood soaked rag from Mackenzie and pulling her up to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her for a hug and she screamed in pain. Jax let go quickly and caught her shoulders as she sank to her knees. She put her head on his chest and inhaled deeply. There was a faint whistle to her inhale.

Jax cradled her head to his shoulder and raised the t-shirt up with his free hand. Her ribs were a deep purple and the right side of her chest didn't really move as she breathed. He winced and looked back at Chibs and Juice.

"Shit. Juicy, go get tha van and some blankets." Chibs said, walking over to Jax and Mackenzie. He had spent a few months as a medic back in Ireland and knew she wasn't well.

"Jax she's gotta get to the hospital. Now." He said helping Jax stand her up slowly. She winced and cried out in pain again before going limp in Jax's arms.


	5. Chapter 5

They loaded Mackenzie into the back of the van and surrounded her by blankets to keep the ride as comfortable as possible. Jax jumped in the driver's seat as Chibs rode in the back with Mackenzie, taking her pulse and checking her breathing frequently.

Jax broke every speed limit from Teller Morrow to St. Thomas' emergency room. With every turn and bump that Jax took, he looked back at Mackenzie and Chibs.

"Jax she's gonna be okay." Juice said from the passenger seat. His eyes hadn't left Mackenzie unless he turned to look at Jax for a minute. Jax didn't respond. He yanked the van to the right and parked in the ambulance-unloading zone. After honking the horn several times, he jumped out and headed to the back of the van.

Chibs and Jax were already carrying Mackenzie in the double doors when a nurse came out yelling that they couldn't park the van there. Juice intercepted the nurse after seeing Jax's murderous glare. A doctor rushed over with a gurney and helped them lay her on it.

"What happened?" The doctor asked as he rushed the gurney back to an examination room. Chibs gave the doctor a run down of what they knew as the doctor cut Mackenzie's shirt off. The purple bruising had grown in size on the drive over. Two nurses rushed in and assisted the doctor intubate Mackenzie.

"We've got it from here. You two need to go to the waiting room. We may have questions later." A blonde doctor said as she pushed past Jax to assist with Mackenzie.

"I'm not leaving her." Jax said simply through clenched teeth. The blonde doctor looked at him as she pushed a needle into Mackenzie's hand to start an IV.

"You leave and go to the waiting room or we call the police and you can answer their questions as to why this poor girl has the shit beaten out of her." She spat at Jax. He lunged forward at her accusation, but Chibs was too fast and caught him by the arm.

"Jacky boy, ya aren't helpin her by fightin the good doctor. Tha's nothing else we can do." Chibs said, trying to calm Jax down. It seemed to work, because he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room. "Sorry." He said flatly as he turned to follow Jax.

Jax had made it to the waiting room and sat down in a chair at the back of the room. He looked calm, sitting with his elbows on his knees and resting his forehead in his hands. Chibs knew this was a sign that Jax was at his most dangerous level. Juice sat across from Jax, looking over at Chibs with a worried expression as he sat down next to Jax. Without looking up, Jax spoke quietly.

"I want that bastard found. I want him alive and bound at the warehouse." Jax's words sent Chibs into motion.

"Aye, I'll call Hap. Juice, call Clay and update him. Then call Unser and get eyes on tha' suv." Chibs said as he pulled out his phone and started making calls. Jax didn't move or speak. Juice pulled the phone away from his ear as Clay yelled on the other end. He answered a few short yeses and no's after explaining what was going on and then hung up.

"What?" Jax asked, still not looking up. Juice stopped dialing Unser and looked at Chibs.

"Uh, well Clay said that he'll send Hap and Opie back, but the others have got to go to the meet with the Irish." Juice said quietly, glancing around to make sure no one could overhear. Jax's only response was a short grunt.

"Teller?" called the blonde doctor that had kicked him out of the ER. Jax stood up quickly, followed closely by Chibs and Juice. She looked at them all and sighed. "Follow me to my office please."

"I'm not legally supposed to tell you anything." She said, looking straight at Jax. His expression was that of stone. "We're still going to have questions as to how this happened, but I don't feel safe keeping you in the dark." She took a deep breath and walked over to a set of x-rays on the wall and pointed at the right side.

"Mackenzie has what's called a flail chest, it means she's got multiple fractures on three of her ribs. That alone is bad enough, but she also has a pneumothorax and internal bleeding resulting from trauma." She looked back at Jax with a bleak expression. He stood up and raked a hand through his hair.

"Are you going to translate that?" Juice asked, staring at the x-rays. Jax looked back at the doctor.

"When her ribs broke further, because there were semi-healed fractures as well, due to the flail chest, her lungs and thorax can't expand normally, making it hard for her to breath. This is even worse because a piece broke off and punctured her lung, causing it to collapse." She took a breath and sat down at her desk. "If that wasn't enough, she's bleeding internally because of the force behind whatever she hit, or" she looked at Jax, "whatever hit her."

"Aye and when can he see her?" Chibs asked with a tinge or worry. The doctor looked down at her hands.

"She's still in surgery to stop the bleeding and set her ribs to fix the flailing. It will be an hour or so before she's out. Before you can see her, the police are going to ask you a few questions." She looked at Jax apologetically. "I'm sorry. It's standard for these types of injuries."

"I'll be in the chapel. They can ask whatever they want and then I'll be in to see her." Jax said as he walked out of the office. Chibs grabbed Juice by the arm as he started to follow him.

"He needs some time." Chibs said as he guided Juice out towards the waiting room.

Jax took a seat at the back of the chapel and stared at the cross. He had never really been religious, but the solitude of the chapel appealed to him. When Abel had been in the hospital as a baby, Jax had spent a lot of time in the chapel thinking and even trying out praying from time to time. He heard the door to the chapel open and then shut quietly as Sheriff Unser sat down beside Jax.

"Jax." He said with a short nod. Jax looked from the cross to the balding, cancer-riddled sheriff and shook his head. "Son, you've got to tell me how she ended up like that."

"We were out on a ride." He said vaguely. "I got a call from Jessie. She said we needed to get back to the club because some guy came in and started throwing Mackenzie around. We turned back and when we got there Mackenzie was cleaning the fucking clubhouse from where, uh, that psycho threw her against shit. I went to hug her and she cried. I raised her shirt up and saw that shit. She passed out and we brought her here." Jax's face hardened as he relived the ordeal. He could only imagine what it was like for Mackenzie. Unser finished making his notes and clapped a hand on Jax's leather covered back.

"Jax, who's the guy that did this?" Unser asked with a concerned expression. Jax simply looked at him and shrugged. Unser swallowed and spoke cautiously, "Where is he?"

"We're working on that." Jax said as he stood up. "Tell the doc I'm clear to see her." He adjusted his kutte and walked past Unser and out of the chapel.

A nurse met Jax in the waiting room and offered to take him back to see her. Chibs and Juice followed him back and waited outside the door as he went in to see Mackenzie.

Jax felt like someone stabbed him in the gut with his ka-bar. Mackenzie was lying unconscious in the hospital bed with a tube running down her throat. There were iv's and wires everywhere. He sat down next to her and gently took her hand. She seemed so fragile to him as she lay motionless.

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have left you there without any of us there. I should have stayed with you." He said sincerely. "We're gonna make sure this never happens to you again." He kissed her hand and stood up slowly. He grimaced again and walked out into the hall. Chibs looked up and frowned as he talked to Happy on the phone. He ended the call and pulled Jax into a hug.

"Jacky-boy she's gonna be alright." Chibs said in a whisper. Jax nodded and pulled away with a deep breath. He looked at Juice.

"Stay here. No one but nurses and doctors are to go in there. If it's someone new, you stop them until they're verified with hospital staff you know. If she wakes up, you call me." Jax said looking at Juice intently. Juice nodded.

"When she wakes up, I'll call you." Juice said with an emphasis on when. Jax smiled weakly before turning and walking down the hall. He and Chibs climbed in the van and rode back to Teller Morrow in silence.

Chibs pulled into the lot and Jax jumped out before the van was fully stopped. He stormed into the clubhouse and marched straight to their "chapel." Happy looked on as he pulled a set of brass knuckles and a baton. Chibs was right behind him, grabbing his custom Kevlar vest and putting it on under his leather jacket. He made sure that both knives were in the specialized holster and zipped up his jacket. Happy raised his eyebrows as both Chibs and Jax walked out and closed the door to the chapel behind them.

"Am I bringing guns to a knife fight?" He asked raising his shirt to expose two pistol grips protruding from underneath his waistband. Jax shrugged and smiled darkly.

"I'm sure we can find a non-lethal use for those, Hap." He clapped Happy on the shoulder as he walked out to his motorcycle.

"That sounds mildly fun." Happy muttered, following Chibs outside. "Hey, do we know where this guy is yet?" He asked, strapping on his helmet and cranking his bike. He and Chibs looked over at Jax who nodded and rode out of the lot. Chibs and Happy exchanged looks before following Jax, struggling to catch up.

**Hold on tight because Jax is out for blood. Mackenzie is fighting her own battle in the hospital, so there's going to be a lot going on next chapter as well. REVIEWS are like candy to me so please keep them coming :) **


	6. Chapter 6

Jax pulled into Marta's hotel and parked his bike. He saw looked around the lot as he waited for Chibs and Happy. Marta's old Volvo was parked near the office and a couple of local cars were scattered towards the back, most likely having unfaithful rendezvous. Jax shook his head when he saw the black suv with Texas plates sitting in plain view in the middle of the parking lot. His blood boiled in his veins.

Not a moment too soon, Happy and Chibs pulled in next to Jax and parked their bikes as well. Regardless of the fact that they had left their kuttes at the clubhouse, it didn't take a genius to figure out who they were. Marta looked out of the office and closed the blinds, hoping to keep some plausible deniability. She had heard about the poor girl getting hurt, and didn't have any loyalty to the accused, hotel guest or not.

"Jax, what's the plan here? It's midday and from you told us, this guy has some people that would care if he went missing." Happy said running his thumb along the frame of his favorite .45. Jax nodded and looked over at Hap with a long sight. "Look, I'm all for revenge, but we've got to be smart about it." Happy said when he noticed Jax's desperate look.

"Why don't we have a prospect watch him and come night fall we either take him out here like a random burglary or we take him out on the rode like a car jacking gone wrong. I'm sorry, Jacky Boy, but Hap's right we've gotta be smart." Chibs said lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag. Jax pulled at his hair before putting his helmet back on.

"Call half-sac and have him get here yesterday. I don't want this fucker to look out of the window without hearing about it right then. Come nightfall, we finish this shit. Chibs, Marta likes you. Let her know to go out and visit her daughter or something tonight." Jax started his bike and looked at the suv one last time before heading back to the hospital.

"Any change?" Jax said walking up behind Juice, causing him to jump a little. Juice had been looking in through the window at Mackenzie, afraid that if he looked away something would happen. He turned his head a little and looked at Jax.

"No, man. The nurse came in a couple times and said she was stabilizing, but that's it." Juice said with a frown. Jax rubbed the back of his neck and nodded as he walked into the room. Juice looked on as Jax pulled the chair closer to the side of the bed and took a seat. At that moment, Jax looked like less of an outlaw and more of a worried boyfriend. Juice turned away and sat down in the chair the nurse had brought him earlier, despite his refusal to use it.

Jax took Mackenzie's hand in his, careful not to move the IV. Her soft skin felt cool against his thumb as he rubbed it back and forth absent-mindedly. He laid his head on his other arm that was lying parallel to Mackenzie's leg and closed his eyes. He blamed himself for her being in here. He should have posted somebody at the clubhouse as was protocol, but they had been so spread thin with the Irish and the warehouse. Excuses, he thought. There was no damn reason the girls should have been there by themselves, especially with Abel there. He swore to himself it would never be a risk he took again.

He felt Mackenzie squeeze his hand a little and his head shot up. Her eyes were still closed, but he knew he hadn't imagined it.

"Mackenzie? I'm here. You don't have to be scared. I'm not going to let anything ever hurt you again. The doctors said you're getting better already." He said, slightly elaborating on the nurse's stabilizing comments. He watched as Mackenzie's eyes fluttered and slowly opened. As her eyes landed on Jax, they widened. She tried to smile and noticed the tube running down her throat. In a panic she jerked her hands up to her mouth and tried to yank it out and she coughed, sending sharp twinges of pain to her side, despite the narcotics. Jax hit the red button on the wall as he tried to calm her without hurting her more.

Her eyes never left his as the doctor rushed in and subdued her. She looked frightened as the nurses held her wrists to the bed. Jax didn't know whether to push them off of her or stand back. Juice was by his side in an instant.

"They're just trying to help her, Jax. If she pulls that out it could do some damage." Juice said shaking Jax's shoulder lightly with his hand. "She's okay." Jax looked at Juice and smiled as much as he could muster. He hated being the one to panic and be unsure, but regardless of his ego, he was happy that his brother had his back.

The doctor gave Mackenzie some sedative to keep her from pulling out the tube and limit her movement that could unsettle her ribs. She looked into Jax's eyes as she fell back into unconsciousness. A few minutes later, Jax's phone started vibrating. He stepped out in the hall, followed closely by Juice, and answered it quickly.

"Jax, it's me. He hasn't even come to the window this whole time. Marta just pulled out and turned over the open sign. There's like two other cars here, down towards the back. Other than that it's all clear." Half-sac said as quickly as he could so Jax wouldn't bite his head off.

"Okay, thanks kid. Good job." Jax said as he closed the phone. Juice raised his brow in mild shock that Jax had been so polite to the prospect. "If you leave her, I'll make sure you're worse off than she is right now." Juice smiled, happy to have the old Jax reappearing.

"I got this Jax. I'll call you if anything changes." Juice said hugging his brother to him quickly. Jax smiled as he caringly pushed him away before turning on his heel and almost jogging out of the hospital. Chibs and Happy were to meet him there. Jax headed down the road and slid his bike around into the hotel parking lot. Chibs looked up from the dirt and nodded as Jax stood his bike up next to Happy's.

"Room 4, brother. Prospect said the light turned off a few minutes after he called you, so he's definitely in there." Happy said nodding his head with a mix of morbid excitement and determination. Jax nodded and signaled for he and Chibs to follow him to the door.

They were careful to avoid the room's window as they stood outside the door. Happy crossed over to the opposite side of the door and held up three fingers. Jax felt the familiar tightening in his chest as Hap brought one finger down and then the other. In unison, Happy dropped his final finger and Jax kicked the door right next to the lock.

The door flew open to reveal a dark haired guy, about Jax's age, jolting up in the bed. Jax trained his aim to the center of the guy's chest as he, Chibs and Happy walked into the room. Happy closed the door behind them.

"Who are you? Here, take the suv my wallet's over there on the dresser." The guy said with a quivering voice. Chibs grabbed the wallet and took the i.d. out, tossing the wallet aside. He looked down at the picture and name and nodded at Jax as he passed it on to him. Jax looked at the i.d. and the clench in his stomach subsided to a feeling of blind rage.

"Hey, Bryan. My name is Jax Teller, and you were in my clubhouse today." Jax laughed maniacally, giving Bryan a false sense of ease. "Yeah, I walked in and saw shit thrown around and blood on my fucking carpet." Bryan's face fell a little as he looked from Jax to Chibs.

"I just fucking cleaned that carpet, Jax." Happy said with a razor edge to his voice. Being a predator himself, he could see Bryan start to shake a little.

"Aye, I guess we can always just clean the carpet again." Chibs said, with a sigh. "Problem isn't the carpet though."

"You're right, brother. Sorry Hap, but I don't really care that much about the carpet." He lowered his gun and sat it on the dresser by Chibs. He walked over to Bryan and bent down so they were face to face. "What I do have a fucking problem with is assholes that beat women. Not only that, but you beat the shit out of someone I happen to like." He said as he smacked Bryan's green face lightly. Bryan tried to scurry back away from Jax.

"Look man, I've got problems. I'm man enough to admit that. I'll go home, enroll in some counseling or some shit. I'll pay for her hospital bills." Bryan said in desperation. Jax laughed and looked back at Chibs.

"He'll get help and pay the bills. Doesn't he sound like a great guy?" Jax said with a wicked smile. Chibs shrugged and looked at Bryan.

"A little too late for that." Chibs said, unzipping his jacket and resting his hands on his knife handles. Bryan's eyes grew to the size of saucers. There was an audible snap as Jax undid the strap holding his ka-bar into the holster. Happy sighed loudly.

"I knew I was bringing guns to a knife party. You could have said something Jax." He was rambling on about his disappointment until Chibs flicked a knife out and handed it over to Happy. His expression was that of a young Happy at Christmas where he probably got bullets and a "How to hide a body" book.

"We are gonna be nice and help you with the counseling. Hell, I'll even let you attend this one free of charge," Jax said as he pulled out his ka-bar. Bryan's bottom lip started quivering right before Jax drove the knife into his left shoulder. Bryan started to scream loudly until Happy covered his mouth with a pillow.

"Please!" Bryan yelled in a muffled voice through the pillow. Jax ripped the knife out in an angle.

"I'm sure Mackenzie said the same thing at least one of the times you beat her." Jax whispered to Bryan as he dug the point of his knife into the wound he'd just made and tore the skin down his rib cage slowly. He felt his pocket vibrate as Bryan screamed again. Jax looked over at Happy as he answered the phone.

"What?" Jax said breathing hard from the adrenaline flooding through his body.

"Hey, it's Juice. Mackenzie's awake again and they're taking the tube out. She's looking around. I think she's looking for you, brother." Juice said quickly as he started through the glass at Mackenzie's wiled eyes.

"As soon as they're done you go in there with her and be sweet. She doesn't need to be lonely. I'll be there in a minute." Jax said before flipping the phone shut. Chibs looked over at him as he stood above Bryan with a knife over his heart.

"I've got to go. Happy, throw him in the suv and shoot him out of town. Make sure it's clean and burn the truck. Chibs, follow him and get the prospect to meet y'all with the van after it's done." Chibs nodded as Happy beamed at Jax and clapped him on the shoulder

"My pleasure, brother." He said still smiling as he turned back to Bryan. Jax jogged out to his bike and headed to the hospital, slightly aware of the blood on his hoodie. It was dark and so was the blood, so he didn't are all that much. He just needed to get to the hospital.


	7. Chapter 7

Mackenzie and Juice were watching cartoons when they heard Jax run up to the door. He slowed down and took a breath before opening the door. She smiled weakly and gave him a little wave as he crossed the room and took a seat on the hospital bed. Juice looked at Mackenzie and grinned.

"I'm gonna go get some coffee. Jax, you want one?" Juice asked as he paused before closing the door behind him. Jax thanked him with a silent smile and a shake of his head. Juice nodded and left the two alone.

"Mackenzie, I'm sorry." Jax said softly as he stroked her hand with his thumb. She shook her head vigorously, but he continued. "I shouldn't have left you there without protection. It's my job to protect people I care about." He looked away as he tried to pull himself together. Mackenzie's throat throbbed and burned from fighting the intubation earlier, but she spoke as best she could.

"Jax." She said in what came out as a hoarse whisper. "Not your fault. I'm ok. Is Jessie ok? Abel ok?" She said with a worried frown. Jax turned back to face her and sighed.

"Mackenzie, babe, you could have died today and you're worried about everyone but yourself. Everyone is okay. They're just worried about you. Abel said he working on a picture for you." He said with a small laugh. Mackenzie smiled brightly.

"He's a sweet boy." She struggled to say. Jax leaned over and kissed her lips gently.

"Don't hurt your throat anymore. We don't need to talk now. I'm here for the night, ok?" He said smoothing her hair. Mackenzie nodded and kept her eyes on him for a while before turning back to the cartoons. Jax scooted the lounge chair as close to the bed as possible and settled in. He looked at the tv every so often, but he mainly watched Mackenzie as he tried to figure out what he wanted out of this and how he could have let this happen.

Juice looked up as he heard hard footsteps approaching. Opie stopped and looked in on Mackenzie and Jax silently. It hurt him to see his best friend and brother feeling the guilt that was written all over his face. He turned away and looked at Juice, noticing the tired circles around his eyes.

"Go get some sleep, Juice." Opie said as he leaned against the wall by Mackenzie's door. Juice shook his head. "Juice. Go. I shoulda been here sooner, but the damn Oakland PD wanted to jump up my ass." Juice's eyes widened as much as possible considering his exhaustion. Opie shook his head. "Didn't get me with anything. Harassing bastards. I've got this until you get some sleep." He smiled weakly and folded his arms over his chest as he turned and looked in at Jax and Mackenzie again.

"Thanks, brother. He's planning on being here through the night. Nurses are saying she's doing good, considering. I'll switch back out with you later." Juice said before giving Opie a quick hug and heading back to the clubhouse to sleep for a couple hours.

Jax waited until Mackenzie slipped back to sleep before checking his phone. There was a text message from Happy with the single word "done." Jax deleted it and put his phone back in his kutte before stepping out of the room. Opie stood and looked at Jax.

"Thanks for being here." Jax said, giving Opie a quick hug. Opie nodded and looked in towards Mackenzie. Jax could see Opie's wheels turning behind his eyes. "I'm sorry, Ope." Opie shook his head slowly, not turning from the window.

"You woulda done the same thing if that was Donna. Just didn't get that chance." He said quietly. Jax let out a deep breath and looked in on Mackenzie as well. He wished they had had a chance to do this for Donna, as painful as this was. Instead Donna had died alone, and neither Jax nor Opie saw it coming. Regardless, Jax still felt that on his shoulders as well. "It's not your fault. You don't get to take that from me." Opie said before turning and sitting back down.

All Jax could do was nod before heading back into Mackenzie's room. He swore to himself that he'd never let anyone hurt someone he cared about again.

Mackenzie woke as Jax walked back in the room. She smiled over at him and reached her hand out. He kissed it softly as he sat back down by her side. Even though the morphine was wearing off and she was in an immense amount of pain, she couldn't remember ever being this happy before. She closed her eyes with peace knowing that he would be there when she woke up.

**2 Months Later**

"Jax, can you come here for a minute?" Mackenzie called from the bed. Jax walked back in from the kitchen and leaned up against the doorframe. He was in his normal jeans and t-shirt with his kutte. He was getting ready to go out on a short run for the first time since Mackenzie got hurt.

"What is it darlin? I need to get over to TM." He said with a weak smile. Mackenzie slid out of bed and walked over to him. She put a hand on his chest and kissed him on the cheek softly. He smiled and pulled her to him gently.

She'd gotten out of hospital six weeks ago now, but he still treated her like she was made of glass sometimes. It was true, she still felt some dull pain in her ribs when she did too much, but it was getting better day-by-day. Jax had worked it out with Clay so that he could take care of things from the clubhouse and stay off of runs for a while. Mackenzie could tell he was getting stir crazy from staying in the general vicinity of Charming, but he tried to hide it from her. Last week when Opie got grazed by a Mayan bullet, Mackenzie had put her foot down after dealing with Jax's anger and frustration.

She threatened to go and stay with Jessie unless he started going back on runs and taking care of club business as usual. They had yelled back and forth about her condition and safety and his mood and responsibility until he finally gave in to make her happy. Now, as he was getting ready to leave, he had placed two prospects outside of his house to watch her.

"Jax, hon, I don't need the prospects here. There's no danger anymore and your mom has Abel so I won't even be running around with him. I have things I need to do today and I don't want them following me around everywhere." Mackenzie said kissing him softly on the neck. She felt him tense as he looked up at the ceiling.

"Mack, we agreed you wouldn't be alone this time. I'm sorry it cramps your style, but they'll be with you all day." He said sternly as she pulled back and looked at him. She furrowed her brow and put her hand on her hip.

"I get it. You think the Mayans are going to send someone by while your gone and something's going to happen." She said. He raised his eyebrows quickly, surprised by the accuracy of her words. "Jax, I used to be a cop, ok? I know that didn't stop what happened with Bryan, but we were caught off guard then. I'm going to be carrying anyways, so take one of them off me. Phil can stay." She said kissing him on the cheek again.

Jax wasn't used to someone else trying to call the shots, but he knew she had a point. Bryan was off in some shallow grave rotting away and she had proven her expertise with a weapon during one of their dates at a gun range. Jax shook his head again but smiled.

"Fine, Phil is staying but the other one will be at TM just in case. He's got some shit to fix on a bike anyways. Be careful, okay? If you buy anything heavy have Phil carry it." Jax said. He kissed her softly on the lips and headed to the door. Mackenzie wrapped a silk robe around her and followed him.

"How'd you know I was planning on going shopping?" She said as he reached for the door. He laughed and paused before exiting.

"You just have that look on your face." He explained. "I love you, Mackenzie."

With that he walked out of the door. Mackenzie bit her bottom lip as a smile spread across her face. Outlaw or not, she knew Jax was a good man that loved her.

She sighed a little as the sound of motorcycles faded off into the distance. She pulled the robe around tighter and opened the door.

"Phil, you can come in. You can hang out in here and the kitchen is open to you." She said with a smile. He walked in hesitantly but thanked her. "Yeah, don't worry about it. It's a lot less weird than you standing on the front porch like a sentinel. I'm going to take a shower." Phil's eyes opened wide but didn't dare argue with Jax's old lady.

Mackenzie gathered her clothes and turned on the shower. She turned and looked in the mirror at her torso. The bruises were gone and the scar from surgery was almost unnoticeable. She smiled and stepped in the shower, letting the water wash away the morning sex and last night's beer.


	8. Chapter 8

"Phil, are you ready to go?" Mackenzie said walking out into the living room. He looked up and nodded. She smiled and grabbed the car keys from the kitchen counter. Phil followed her out of the house and headed to his bike.

"Hey, would you mind just riding with me? It'd be less obvious if anyone really was watching anyways." Mackenzie called out to Phil. He looked around and shrugged.

"Yeah, okay. I'm just not used to riding in cages." Phil said as he got into Mackenzie's car. She laughed and cranked the car.

"I'm not used to the car myself, so I get it." She said with a smile. Jax had gotten her the black Challenger a couple weeks after she came home to replace her totaled, old clunker. Mackenzie felt like he got it just to spoil her, but either way she was thankful to have something besides his truck to drive.

"So, we're just going to the hardware store for some paint and stuff. If Jax asks then just say we're going shopping." Mackenzie said with a grin. Phil sighed but nodded without a word.

Mackenzie got out at the hardware store, followed closely by Phil. She tried to make small talk with him as they walked back to the paint aisle, but he stayed pretty quiet as he kept a watchful eye out. She gave up and stood in front of the paint chips for a couple minutes. Finally making a decision and getting a gallon mixed, they headed to the brushes and rollers. She was reaching down for a paint tray when she started to feel light headed. Bracing herself against the shelf, Mackenzie closed her eyes and took some deep breaths.

"You okay, Mackenzie?" Phil asked with wide eyes as he sat the paint can down and supported her with his large hands. Mackenzie nodded and tried to laugh it off.

"I'm fine, Phil. Just a little light headed. Do you mind getting this stuff? I'm going to go out to the car and sit down." Phil seemed hesitant to take the cash and let her go, but he knew Jax would have his balls in a jar if he was forcing Mackenzie to feel bad. He finally took it and headed up to the checkout as Mackenzie went back out to the car.

Mackenzie sat with her head between her knees and the car door open. She was a little more level headed, but felt horribly sick to her stomach. She heard footsteps coming up to the car and looked up, expecting to see Phil. Instead, she saw a bald-headed man walking up to her. As he got closer, she noticed a swastika tattooed on his upper arm. She tensed and, as casually as possible, reached to her back and had her gun under her fingertips.

"Morning. Nice car you got there. Haven't seen one in flat black like that, especially not here in Charming." He walked closer, seemingly getting a closer look at the car. Mackenzie didn't relax but stood her ground.

"Yeah, my boyfriend picked it out." She said casually. The man looked at her and smiled. She knew he was trying to intimidate her. Normally she wouldn't be, but she didn't feel one hundred percent at the moment.

"Jax Teller, right? Where is Jax?" The man said taking another step towards her, leaving the façade of looking at the car in the past. Mackenzie narrowed her eyes.

"Don't think that's any of your business. You are?" She hissed at him. He smiled again.

"Darby. We had a bit of a disagreement about my business. Wanted to make sure he has his priorities in order. Business and family." Darby stepped forward and reached for Mackenzie's arm. She acted quickly.

Mackenzie grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back as she drew her gun with her other hand. She pressed the metal barrel into the back of his neck.

"I came here to get some fucking paint, not be harassed by some hick. Maybe you should check your priorities. Do you want this bullet to paralyze you from the neck down or do you want to walk away and never fucking come near me or Jax again?" Mackenzie whispered into his ear as he groaned in pain.

"I'm sorry I didn't quite understand that." She said as she pulled his arm back further and pulled the Beretta's hammer back.

"I said let go of me, you stupid bitch. I get the point. You won't see me again." Darby growled. Mackenzie's normally level temper flared at his insult. She jerked the gun away from his neck and out to the side of his head and pulled the trigger. Darby yelped in pain and scrambled away after Mackenzie let loose of his arm.

"Shit." Phil said from behind Mackenzie. She jumped a little and turned to see him standing there with his gun aimed at the spot Darby had been kneeled in. Mackenzie was about to say something when she bowed over and vomited onto the asphalt. She breathed in and out rapidly as she started to feel a little better.

"You mind driving?" Mackenzie asked Phil as she stood up and took the napkin he was offering her. He took the keys from her and helped her over to the passenger side of the car. She let the seat back and covered her eyes with her hand as she heard the trunk open and close before Phil got in the drivers seat.

She knew he was watching her more the road by the way the car would swerve a little and then get pulled back. As sweet as it was that Phil was concerned, the swerving wasn't making Mackenzie's stomach feel any better.

After what seemed like forever, Phil carefully pulled the car into Jax and Mackenzie's driveway and put it in park. Mackenzie rushed out of the car and into the house before throwing up again. Luckily she'd made it to the bathroom. Phil followed her with bags in hand. He was just about to ask if she was okay when she closed the bathroom door with a slam.

Fifteen minutes later, Mackenzie emerged from the bathroom and sat down next to Phil on the couch. She looked over at him sheepishly.

"Sorry, I think I had some food poisoning. Thanks for checking on me." Mackenzie said, playfully punching Phil in the arm. He looked over at her and cracked a smile.

"No problem, you're Jax's old lady. You're pretty cool to." He said with a yawn. Mackenzie was feeling a little better, so she left Phil on the couch and headed back to the bathroom with the paint can, tray and brushes. Soon, she heard Phil start to snore on the couch as she was painting.

A couple hours later, Mackenzie stepped back and looked at her handy work. The bathroom was an awesome, metallic silver that looked modern with the black finishes that had already been there. She was just cleaning up when she heard voices coming from the living room. She took out her earphones and noticed the voices were actually yelling.

She tossed the garbage bag down and hurried into the living room to find Jax and Opie standing there and Phil sitting on the couch looking nervous.

"Why in the fuck did Unser meet me at the shop and tell me that he had to take a complaint about gun fire at the hardware store where apparently Mackenzie shot at Darby? You don't think that should have been something you called me about?" Jax shouted as he glared at Phil.

Mackenzie narrowed her eyes and stepped into Jax's view. His expression softened a little as he looked at her, but he was still pissed.

"I told him not to call you." Mackenzie lied. "I didn't shoot at that skinhead or he would have been shot. I was making a point. I had it under control." Mackenzie said as she looked between Jax and Phil. Opie shook his head and looked at Phil.

"Why weren't you with her?" Jax asked with exhaustion in his voice. Phil looked over at Mackenzie, trying to decide whether he should tell Jax about her getting sick or not. He swallowed hard.

"I was paying. Mackenzie wasn't feeling well so she went out to the car while I paid." Phil said, shooting Mackenzie an apologetic look. Mackenzie gave him a small smile, silently forgiving him.

Jax turned from Phil and looked at Mackenzie with concern as Opie took a seat by Phil on the couch.

"You okay, Mack?" Jax asked, taking her hand and kissing her cheek. She nodded and smiled.

"I'm fine. I think I just had some food poisoning or something. Look, I told Phil to pay, okay? Darby didn't really stand a chance against me. He's too stupid to really surprise anyone." Mackenzie said as she wrapped her arms around Jax. He sighed and shook his head, but didn't say anything else about the incident. Mackenzie closed her eyes against his chest, feeling that unease in her stomach creeping back up.

**Hope you all are still enjoying :) If you have any thoughts or opinions you'd like to share, please message me or leave a review. I ****welcome****any comments as long as they are respectful.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry for the delay everyone! I've been crazy busy with life. Hope everyone enjoys this chapter :) I hope to update again as early as tomorrow :) Thanks for everyone that has supported me so far with follows, favorites and reviews! It means a lot.**

Opie and Phil headed out a short time later, leaving Jax and Mackenzie alone for the night. Mackenzie grabbed Jax by the hand and led him to the bathroom door. She turned to him and smiled

"Close your eyes." She said playfully. He laughed and shook his head. "Aw, come on!" She begged. He let out a fake sigh and slapped his hand over his eyes. Mackenzie waved her hand in front of his face to make sure he wasn't peeking before she opened the door. When she turned back he was already looking at her work.

"So, this is what you were planning? I thought I might have come home to a new wardrobe." He laughed and pulled her to him, giving her a kiss on the top of the head. "It looks great, Mack." She moved in closer to him as they stood in the doorway for a few minutes, just being together.

"Jax, I'm super tired from today. I may have over done it with painting. Let's go to bed, okay?" Mackenzie said with a little yawn. Jax grinned down at her and nodded, leading her into the bedroom. She stripped down to her underwear, as she so often did, and crawled into bed. He wasn't far behind her, turning on the television as she rested her head on his chest.

It wasn't long before her breathing evened out and Jax was certain she was asleep. He was flipping through channels when he caught a glimpse of a short story about the disturbance at the hardware store on the news. He watched it for a couple minutes and rolled his eyes when the reporter mentioned the witnesses may have seen a member of the "local motorcycle gang" around at the time the gun went off. Jax scoffed as he turned the television off.

"Yeah, bring up SAMCRO but not the fucking crank dealer neo-Nazi." He murmured to himself. Mackenzie stirred at his voice and rolled over to her pillow. Jax stayed still for a minute to keep from disturbing her awake. She whimpered a little in her sleep and he frowned.

"It's okay, darlin'. Nothing is going to hurt you again." He rolled to his side and draped an arm over her protectively. The noises of the house settling and the wind blowing kept him up like they did most nights since Mackenzie came to live with him. Just as the sky outside was lightening, he fell into a light sleep, until Mackenzie jumping out of bed jolted him awake.

Mackenzie made her way straight to their bathroom and closed the door behind her. She made it to the toilet just before she started throwing up uncontrollably. She felt clammy and lightheaded as Jax opened the door. She looked up at him with a frown, just before getting sick again. He frowned and got her a cold washcloth before walking back out to the bedroom. He lit a cigarette and highly considered getting a beer from the refrigerator.

Luckily, Abel had stayed with Gemma the night before, because Jax really didn't want him to see Mackenzie like this. Ever since Mackenzie had moved in with them, Abel was attached to her hip most hours of the day. They had a bond that he hadn't known Abel was missing until Mackenzie showed up. Jax had a feeling in his gut that it may not be just the three of them much longer.

"Hey." Mackenzie said weakly, sitting beside him on the bed. Jax returned an equally weak smile and put out his cigarette. "I'm sorry, I guess I have a stomach bug, not just food poisoning. I feel like shit." Mackenzie said, wrapping her arms around Jax's waist. Jax laughed a little, causing her to lean away and stare at him.

"Sorry, babe, I'm not laughing at you feeling bad. I just have a feeling you don't have some bug." He said, glancing over at her. Her face paled as she shook her head. Jax grinned a little and pulled her to him.

"Jax, I can't." Mackenzie said softly as tears formed in her eyes. Jax rubbed her arm as he listened to her denial. "No, you don't understand. I can't be pregnant."

"Babe, I know it's not something we planned or anything, but we fuck a lot so, I'm pretty sure you can." Jax said with a hint of amusement in his voice. Mackenzie pushed away from him and stormed over to the window.

"You're not listening to me, Jackson. I can't get pregnant. A doctor in Texas can confirm since you think I'm fucking kidding." She shot at him. Jax's eyes dropped to the ground, but he didn't say anything. "I had a miscarriage last year when Bryan shoved me down some stairs. We didn't know I was pregnant until I started bleeding really bad. Doctor said it wasn't possible for me to have kids, after the trauma." Mackenzie said in a detached tone. Jax sighed and walked over to her, running his hands down her arms. She turned slowly, revealing the tears flowing down her face.

"I'm sorry, Mackenzie. I didn't know." Jax said softly. Mackenzie sighed and nodded her head.

"It isn't your fault, Jax. I shouldn't have yelled at you. I probably should have told you before." Mackenzie said as she wiped tears away from her eyes. Jax furrowed his brow and shook his head.

"Stop making excuses for being mad at me or telling me when I'm wrong, Mack. I'm not going to hit you for saying the wrong thing. I wish you'd stop treating me like I'm a fucking monster." Jax said, dropping his hands from her and going over to the closet. Mackenzie frowned and folded her arms over her chest.

"I don't act like that, Jax. If I thought you were going to hurt me I wouldn't be here." She said simply. Jax shook his head as he zipped his jeans and grabbed a t-shirt. Mackenzie sighed, not sure of what to say. "Jax, I'm sorry."

"Seriously?" Jax said, yanking his shirt over his head and grabbing his kutte. "Do you even know what you're fucking sorry for or are you just throwing it out there?" Jax asked coldly. Mackenzie looked down at the ground.

"I don't know Jax. You were fine until I told you I couldn't get pregnant and now you're just storming off." Mackenzie said, her frustration coming through her voice. Jax shook his head and dropped his shoulders.

"That has nothing to do with this. I already told you and you just keep doing the same thing, Mackenzie. Stop walking on eggshells around me. Have I ever hurt you?" Jax said, hearing himself getting louder despite his efforts to act like he was fine. Mackenzie narrowed her eyes at him.

She didn't get a chance to give her rebuttal, because he was already down the hall. She wanted to follow him and fix the stupid fight, but her stomach lurched, sending her back to the bathroom, sick again. She heard Jax's Harley roar out of the driveway as she splashed water on her face. Today was one of those days she should have just stayed in bed; she damned her weak stomach as she got back into the empty bed.

Jax pulled into Teller Morrow and parked his bike angrily. He was still reeling from his fight with Mackenzie. Before he could make it into the clubhouse, Gemma caught sight of him and called him into the office. He cursed under his breath, but walked into the office nonetheless.

"What?" Jax said, leaning against the doorframe. Gemma glared at him and put a hand on her hip as she turned round to face him.

"You going to tell me what that attitude's for?" Gemma said, looking into her son's eyes. She could tell it wasn't just the lack of sleep this morning. He had some type of pain behind those bright blue eyes.

"Shit with Mackenzie, don't worry about it. Where's Abel?" Jax said, looking at the wall behind his mom. She wasn't buying it.

"He's playing on the swings with Jessie. What'd you do?" Gemma said, keeping her gaze steady. Jax rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Blamed her for shit she can't help. I wasn't even mad, but that's how it came out." Jax said hollowly. Gemma frowned and dropped her perched hand to her side. She knew Jax well enough to know he wasn't going to go any further with the details.

"I'll go see her, baby. We'll have a girls day. Abel was asking about her anyways. Sweetie, you know he calls her momma sometimes, don't you?" Gemma said with a sweet smile. Jax sighed and hung his head. He felt like even more of an ass for some reason.

"Thanks, Mom. No, I haven't heard him say it before. She's a good mom to him." Jax said with a noticeable downward turn to his forced smile. He kissed Gemma on the cheek and headed across the lot to the clubhouse.

Mackenzie heard someone pull into the driveway and two car doors close. She rolled out of bed and pulled on a t-shirt and some sweatpants just as she heard the front door open. The sound of little feet running on the hardwood made her smile.

"Mackenzie? You awake?" She heard Gemma call from the living room. Just as she stepped out into the hallway, Abel threw himself at her legs and squeezed. She laughed and picked him up. He was beaming as he wrapped his arms around her neck.

Gemma smiled as Mackenzie walked into the living room holding Abel. She smiled over at Gemma as she sat Abel back down. Abel scurried off into the corner, pulling out his toy motorcycles and legos.

"Hey, sweetheart, you don't look so good." Gemma said as she gave Mackenzie a hug. Dark, puffy circles surrounded her eyes and she was paler than normal. Mackenzie brushed her hair out of her face and hitched a shoulder.

"Just a stomach bug or something. Thanks for bringing Abel home. You could have called me, I would have picked him up if you were busy at the shop." Mackenzie said, sitting down on the couch. Gemma shook her head and sat her purse on the coffee table as she joined Mackenzie on the couch.

"Not that much going on at the shop. Everyone already picked their repairs up from the weekend. I'm glad to get out for a bit." Gemma said with a shrug. Gemma and Mackenzie talked about the shop and Jessie's new boyfriend a little as Abel drew with crayons.

A few minutes later, Abel walked over and handed Mackenzie a piece of paper with a big smile. Mackenzie took it and turned it around and grinned as she saw what he'd drawn. It pulled at her heart, bringing happy tears to her eyes.

"Don't cry, Momma. It's you, me and Daddy. See? We's smiling!" He said, pointing as he climbed into Mackenzie's lap. Mackenzie hugged him to her and kissed the top of his little, blonde head.

"I love it, little man. Go put it on the fridge so your Daddy can see it when he gets home." Mackenzie said with a smile. She felt lucky to know such a wonderful little boy. Gemma looked on as Abel hopped down and hurried into the kitchen, picture in hand.

"He's crazy about you, you know? They both are." She told Mackenzie with a smile. Mackenzie nodded and looked on as Abel stepped back and looked at his picture with pride. She recognized the similarity in how he and his dad stood. She stood to go get Abel a snack, but got dizzy as she rose from the couch. She reached a hand out and caught herself on the back of the couch, aware that Gemma was giving her a look.

"I'm fine, just stood up too fast. I haven't really felt like eating since lunch yesterday." Mackenzie said breathily. Gemma shook her head and grabbed her bag from the table.

"Abel, come on sweetie, we're going on a ride to the doctor with Mommy." Gemma called as she slid a hand under Mackenzie's arm, steadying and leading her towards the door. Mackenzie would have fought it, but she wasn't feeling well enough to fight a losing battle.


	10. Chapter 10

"Hi, Mackenzie, I'm Dr. Ferro. What's been going on?" The short, dark haired doctor asked Mackenzie sweetly. Her coffee colored eyes were already evaluating Mackenzie.

"Uh, I got sick to my stomach yesterday. It was late morning, I guess. I haven't really had an appetite since then and I just got a little dizzy when I stood up too fast." Mackenzie explained flatly. Dr. Ferro nodded and jotted something down in the chart. She looked back up at Mackenzie and smiled professionally.

"Did you eat anything outside of your normal diet before you got sick? You can answer, I'm just going to check your eyes and temperature, okay?" The doctor asked, pulling a thermometer off of the wall. Mackenzie nodded and thought about her last meal.

"No, not really. I had some cereal yesterday morning and a burger the night before. My boyfriend ate the same burgers, but he's fine, so is his son." Mackenzie said, tripping over the word boyfriend a little. She was so used to biker terms, it felt weird calling Jax her boyfriend. The doctor nodded again as she shone a flashlight into each of Mackenzie's eyes.

"Your temperature is a little up, but not anything to worry about. When was your last period, Mackenzie?" The doctor asked, sitting back down on her rolling stool. Mackenzie shook her head and looked down at her nails.

"I haven't had one in year or so. Even before then, they weren't really constant." Mackenzie said, hitching her shoulder. Dr. Ferro nodded and wrote something else in Mackenzie's chart.

"Okay, Ms. Bradshaw, I'm going to order some labs so we can check out some things and see what might have you under the weather. They'll also give us a baseline of your health, which is always good when you establish a new primary care physician." Dr. Farro told Mackenzie with a pat on the knee. She had a nurse escort Mackenzie down to the lab.

She looked at the needle and grimaced. If there was one thing she hated most about doctors or hospitals, it was the needles. The technician drew a couple of vials of blood and told her she'd get a call in a couple days with the results. Mackenzie made a beeline out to the hall where there weren't any needles.

"Sorry, we had some chicken nuggets while we waited. You ready to go?" Gemma asked, looking up from the magazine she was flipping through and tossing the food carton into the bag. Mackenzie nodded and picked Abel up from Gemma's lap where he'd been sleeping. Gemma eyed her curiously as they walked out to her suv. Mackenzie strapped the still sleeping boy into his car seat and then headed to the passenger seat. As she buckled in, she looked over to Gemma.

"They didn't really say anything. Drew some blood and told me to drink clear fluids and chicken broth until my stomach settles." Mackenzie explained, raising her arm to show her battle wound from the lab. Gemma laughed and shook her head as she started the engine.

"I'll think you'll live there, Rambo. You need anything before going home?" Gemma asked as she pulled out of the parking lot. Mackenzie shook her head silently.

"Do you think he's mad because I can't have kids?" She asked Gemma as she stared out of the window at the elementary school. Gemma frowned, realizing what had been under Jax's skin this morning.

"No, baby, I don't think he's mad. A part of him may be disappointed, but it's nothing he would be mad at you for." She said softly. Mackenzie continued to look out the window, this time in the side mirror where she could see Abel sleeping soundly. She sighed as she felt a sadness she'd long suppressed swell up.

"I wish I could give him that. If that's what he wanted. I've always wanted to be a mom and he's a great dad to Abel. I guess I tricked him into loving me. I should have told him before things got so serious." Mackenzie sounded exasperated and pained. Gemma pulled over into the dirt and stopped the suv suddenly.

"Don't you do that to yourself. Jackson loves you more than I've ever seen him love before by a long shot. You don't get to claim trickery or blame yourself for something you didn't do. See that beautiful little boy back there?" Gemma asked, grabbing Mackenzie by the shoulders and turning her to look at Abel. "You are the only Momma that angel has ever known. He may not be your blood but don't for a fucking minute think he doesn't see you as his. You got a whole family here that loves you. The club, me, Jax and Abel, we're your family whether you knew it or not." Gemma pulled Mackenzie in close and gave her a hug as she felt the young girl collapse against her chest. She didn't know if her tears were from sadness or happiness, but she was glad to have Gemma there. Gemma patted Mackenzie's hair before pushing her up a little. She smiled and handed her a tissue.

"Let's get you home sweetie." She said, pulling back onto the road. Mackenzie nodded but didn't say anything for the rest of the ride. When she had first come to Charming, she never thought she could tolerate Gemma, but now she was closer to her than she ever was her own mother. She thought about what she'd said about Abel and family, realizing she was too lucky to be feeling so sorry for herself. She looked up from her lap as Gemma pulled up behind her car in the driveway.

Mackenzie smiled when she saw Jax's motorcycle parked beside her Challenger. Before she even had a chance to open her door, he was walking down the front steps towards the suv. Gemma watched silently as Mackenzie got out of the car and Jax scooped her up into his arms. She smiled even though she realized at that moment that Jax was no longer only hers, he was just as much Mackenzie's.

Gemma felt a single tear roll down her cheeks as they both smiled while Jax got Abel out of his car seat. Jax grinned at his mom before the three of them headed into their house and Gemma headed to her own.

"I'll put him down babe, you rest." Jax said as he kissed Mackenzie softly. She smiled and kissed Abel on the cheek before headed to her and Jax's room. She sat her purse on the bench in front of the bed as she shrugged her jacket off. When she turned to hang the leather jacket in the closet, she noticed a bouquet of beautiful, white lilies on her bedside table. She dropped her jacket on the bed and walked over to the flowers, gently stroking one of the petals with her fingertip.

"I know they're your favorite and I wanted to get you something nice." Jax said in a low voice as he leaned against their bedroom door. Mackenzie nodded and turned towards him slowly.

"They're beautiful, Jax. Thank you so much." She said with a bright smile. He walked in and closed the door behind him.

"Babe, I was a dick earlier. I wasn't mad at you. I was pissed at myself for assuming and hurting you with that." He said as he brushed a hair off of her cheek gently. She smiled and looked the man she loved in the eyes, taking in the moment. "I can't promise that we're not going to fight again, but I can promise that I'll always come back home to you. Even when I'm on runs, I'm only yours, babe. Have been since the day you showed up at TM." Jax whispered as Mackenzie ran her hands through his hair and kissed his neck.

"So, I guess that means I'm officially your old lady?" Mackenzie said softly as she pulled him down onto their bed. They laid next to one another as Jax ran his calloused hand over Mackenzie's smooth arm. He hitched a shoulder with a smile.

"You've been that for a while, babe. I was kind of hoping you'd want to be my wife to." Jax said, blushing ever so slightly as his dimples seduced Mackenzie. She felt a warmth run through her as she smiled.

"Jackson Teller, are you asking me to marry you?" She asked, cupping his face in her petite hand. He nodded and kissed her outstretched wrist. Mackenzie scooted forward and kissed him deeply. Jax ran his hand around to her back and pulled her against him. She pulled back a little and smiled into his blue his eyes.

"Yes, Jax." She whispered. Jax beamed and kissed her passionately. He stretched across the bed and turned off the lamp on his bedside table, throwing the room into a comfortable darkness. When he returned, he and Mackenzie took things slow and enjoyed every minute of their first time having sex as an engaged couple.

Every touch of Jax's mouth or skin to Mackenzie's body sent joyful tingles down her spine. She couldn't help but smile as he kissed her neck as he slowly entered her yearning opening. Every fiber of her body was on fire as she lost herself in his touch and presence.

Jax was intoxicated by the taste of his fiancé's skin. She was warm and sweet on his tongue as he sucked on her soft skin on her breast. He couldn't help but run his hands all over her as she moaned softly. He felt her tighten around him as they both exploded into waves of pleasure so good it could hardly be considered legal.

After lying silently for a few minutes, Mackenzie slid off of the bed and into the shower. Jax followed her and joined her in the steaming stream of water. The water crashed over them as they kissed deeply. Mackenzie pulled back slowly to catch her breath. He caught the small yawn she tried to hide and smirked.

"We can save round two for the morning. Showers and then bed, woman." Jax said winking down at her. She laughed and slapped his chest playfully.

"Yes, my king." She whispered as he ran a sponge across her shoulders. He smiled again and let her finish showering as he watched. She stepped out of the shower and dried off before getting into bed. Before Jax could finish his shower and join her, she was sound asleep. He smiled as he slid in the bed, careful not to wake her. For once in the last two months, Jax fell sound to sleep minutes after his head hit his pillow.


	11. Chapter 11

Mackenzie woke up to find herself alone in bed. She frowned a little, never liking to wake up alone, but she knew Jax probably had club business to take care of. She got out of bed slowly, feeling a soreness in her abdomen. Making her way down to Abel's room, she heard the front door open.

"Mackenzie you awake?" Gemma called from the entrance. Mackenzie peeked her head in Abel's room, but he was still sleeping soundly, hugging a stuffed Harley Davidson bear to his chest. With a smile, she pulled the door to, leaving only a tiny crack.

"Yeah, Gem, I'm up." Mackenzie said, walking by Gemma and into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. Gemma took a seat at the bar and lit a cigarette. Mackenzie looked over at her a wrinkled her nose. "That a new brand you're trying out or something?"

"No, same old red label, why?" Gemma said, exhaling a stream of smoke. Mackenzie poured two mugs of coffee, handing one to Gemma and taking a sip of her own.

"Just smells funny." She said with a shrug. Gemma raised her brow and started to comment, but Mackenzie's cell phone, which Jax had insisted she get, starting buzzing. Mackenzie picked it up and swiped the screen with her thumb to answer it. "Hello?"

"Hi, may I speak to Mackenzie Bradshaw?" a young lady said cheerfully.

"This is she." Mackenzie said, setting her coffee down. She was hoping to get off the phone quickly as her stomach was starting to churn.

"Hi, Ms. Bradshaw, this is Karen, I'm a nurse with Dr. Ferro's office. Dr. Ferro just went over your blood test and wanted me to give you a call to see when you can come in." The nurse said with a upbeat tone. Mackenzie bit her bottom lip and bounced her leg nervously.

"Um, I can come this afternoon, I guess." She said, averting her eyes away from Gemma's suspicious expression. The nurse set Mackenzie an appointment for one o'clock and asked her to bring a list of her medications in with her. Mackenzie agreed and ended the call. She put the phone back on the counter and rushed to the bathroom. She felt tears running down her face as her stomach emptied again, causing her to cough in pain.

She heard Gemma tap on the door lightly before walking in and rubbing her back to try and comfort her. A couple minutes later, she helped Mackenzie off the floor and into the living room to sit on the couch.

"I'm going to get you some ginger ale and some crackers. You just sit back, sweetheart." Gemma said, walking into the kitchen. She looked back in on Mackenzie and frowned. She looked weaker than she did in the hospital. With a sigh, Gemma sat the drink and crackers in front of Mackenzie and made an excuse about forgetting to turn her headlights off.

Once she was outside, Gemma flipped her phone open and hit the speed dial for Jax. The line rang a couple of times before Jax answered breathlessly.

"Jax, are you doing something overly important today?" Gemma asked, looking back towards his front door.

"Uh, I'm catching up on some work on this damn truck in the shop. Why, what's wrong?" Jax said, picking up on Gemma's stressed tone.

"I'm taking Abel to the shop and you're going to take Mackenzie to the doctor's office. They called and said she needed to come in results. You need to be there with her, Jax. She's still hurling every five minutes." Gemma said, agitated that she couldn't do anything to help the poor girl. Despite their rocky start, Gemma had actually grown to like Mackenzie She proved herself to be a fighter and had something about her that Gemma knew could be trusted.

"Alright, Mom. I'm going to have Ope take over this. I'll be there in a few minutes. Help her get ready to go." Jax said quickly. Gemma heard metal tools dropping loudly into a tool box as she started walking back to the door.

"Jax, her appointment isn't until this afternoon. You can finish whatever you're," Jax cut Gemma off before she could finish.

"No. I don't give a fuck when the appointment is. They're going to see her when we get there." He snapped. Gemma smiled as she shook her head and said goodbye to her hot-tempered son. She knew he would do anything to take care of his family.

Mackenzie looked over the back of the couch as Gemma walked back in. She had finished most of the ginger ale and was holding down several crackers as well as she could. Gemma smiled at her as she walked around the couch.

"I'm going to take Abel to TM with me. Jax is on his way to take you to the doctor." Gemma said, offering Mackenzie her hand. Mackenzie took it and stood slowly, scowling at Gemma.

"Why did you call him, Gemma? I'm sure he's busy with club business. I'm not an invalid, I can go by myself." She said shortly. Gemma laughed sarcastically.

"Sweetheart, he would have both our heads if you drove yourself in your condition." She said, opening Mackenzie's dresser drawers and pulling out underwear and a t-shirt. Mackenzie raised her brow as Gemma shoved the clothes into her hands. She headed to the bathroom to wash up as Gemma headed to get Abel up and ready. Mackenzie brushed her teeth and was gargling mouthwash as Abel ran in and wrapped his arms around her legs. She spit the minty froth into the sink before reaching down and picking him up.

"Good morning, little man. Are you excited to go with Gramma and see Uncle Opie?" Mackenzie said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Abel nodded and pulled back, looking at her face. "What is it, Abel?"

"You's prettier today." He said as he buried his face between her neck and shoulder. Mackenzie laughed and sat him back down to his feet.

"Well, thank you sweetheart. I needed that today." She said with a tear rolling down her cheek. Abel's kindness touched her heart and made Gemma's words about family sink further and further in. Gemma walked in and took Abel's hand as they heard the front door open.

"Mackenzie, are you ready?" Jax called as he walked back to the room they shared. She grabbed her purse and gave Jax a smile as he walked in. He gave Abel and his mom a quick kiss before they all headed outside.

"We'll try and stop by the garage after the doctor's office. Be good for Gramma, Abel." Mackenzie said with a smile and wave as she got into the passenger seat of her car. Jax hopped in smiled over at Mackenzie.

"Hey darlin." His delayed greeting made Mackenzie laugh. He smirked back at her, happy that she was feeling well enough to keep her humor. He sped out towards the doctor's office as she filled him in on what the nurse had said. Jax didn't mention it to Mackenzie, but it worried him that they weren't able to tell her results on the phone. He swung the car into a parking spot. Mackenzie laid a hand on her stomach and grimaced.

"Baby, I thank you for your concern, but slinging me around doesn't help." She said with a weak smile. Jax got out and came around the car, helping her out of the passenger seat.

"Sorry, Mack. Cages aren't really my strong point when it comes to driving." Jax said, planting a kiss on her forehead. They headed into the building and walked into the elevator. Mackenzie turned to Jax and looked up at him.

"Jax, I'm really scared." Mackenzie said, her voice quivering. Jax pulled her to him and rubbed her arm, at a loss for words. "My family has a history of cancer and Krohns and stuff." She whispered. Jax swallowed hard.

"Babe, we don't know anything yet. Let's just see what the doc says and we'll take it from there okay? You're not alone, no matter what it is." He said, kissing the top of her head as the elevator doors opened. He sighed quietly as she walked out ahead of him. Inside, he was worried as well. He wanted to tell her everything would be okay, but he promised to never say that to anyone when he couldn't guarantee it.

"Ms. Bradshaw, we weren't expecting you until this afternoon." Karen said, looking between Mackenzie and the attractive biker with her. She swallowed hard, knowing the Sons of Anarchy's reputation.

"I'm sorry. I got really worried. Do you think she can see me sooner?" Mackenzie asked with a sweet smile as she signed in. Karen frowned as she looked down at Dr. Ferro's schedule.

"Ma'am she's really booked today," Karen said apologetically. Jax scowled at her and then looked over at Mackenzie's worried expression.

"Why don't you go ask her? Let her know she's worried." Jax said as politely as I could. His threatening tone didn't go unnoticed by Karen or Mackenzie. Karen nodded and walked back to find Dr. Ferro. Once she was out of sight, Mackenzie elbowed Jax in the side.

"Jax, it's not their fault you wanted to rush over here." She hissed at him. He looked over at her and shrugged. Karen rushed back up to the desk with a smile, causing Jax to smirk. Mackenzie rolled her eyes, but smiled back at Karen.

"Dr. Ferro just had a cancellation, so you can come one back." Karen said before walking around and opening the door back to the patient rooms. "Since you were just here, we'll skip the scales, but I still want to get your blood pressure."

Mackenzie nodded and climbed up on the exam table as Jax took a seat by the door. After Karen took the blood pressure cuff back off, Jax raised his eyebrows.

"So? Good, bad, what?" He said impatiently. Karen gave her best attempt at a smile and nodded at him.

"It's good. The doctor will be in shortly." She said, sliding out of the room and closing the door behind her. Jax and Mackenzie sat in nervous silence. She swung her legs back and forth off the end of the exam table and he ran his thumb in circles on the hilt of his k-bar. A couple minutes later, there was a quick knock on the door before Dr. Ferro walked in.

"Hi, Mackenzie! Thank you for coming in today." She said brightly. She reached her hand out to Jax, who shook it politely. "I'm Dr. Ferro, you must be the boyfriend." She said with a smile.

"Fiancé now, but yeah, Jax Teller." He said with a genuine, bright smile. His friendliness seemed to put the doctor more at ease. She pulled up a stool and took a seat as she opened Mackenzie's chart. Mackenzie bit her bottom lip as Dr. Ferro nodded her head in thought.

"Your blood work came back rather impressive. You are actually in great health. Your cholesterol, blood count, it's all wonderful." Dr. Ferro said with a smile. Mackenzie frowned and lowered her brow.

"Okay, so she can keep eating hamburgers?" Jax asked sarcastically. Dr. Ferro brushed his tone off and smiled again.

"Well, yes, as long as she doesn't drink any alcohol with them." She explained, turning to Mackenzie, who was already shaking her head. Dr. Ferro's smile faltered a little, worried she was about to deliver news that wouldn't be too welcome. "Ms. Bradshaw with your symptoms it's standard to run a HCG level as well, to rule out pregnancy. Your levels were definitely elevated. I understand that you have been told that it's not possible, but you are, in fact, quite pregnant."

Mackenzie's hand flew up to cover her mouth in shock. She kept shaking her head, but started smiling. Jax jumped up and went to her and hugged her to him. She pulled back and looked at him, breathing heavily.

"Is this okay?" She whispered. He laughed and nodded adamantly with a bright smile. Dr. Ferro cleared her throat and grinned as the two realized she was still in the room.

"Mackenzie, I'm glad to see this was a welcome surprise, and congratulations. With that being said, I am having Karen set you an appointment with a OBGYN as soon as possible due to the past concerns over your ability to conceive." Dr. Ferro said before jotting a prescription for vitamins and a pregnancy safe anti-nausea medication. She handed them both to Jax and gave Mackenzie a hug before heading out of the room.

Mackenzie looked over at Jax as her smile faded a little. Hey eyes were the size of hubcaps. Jax frowned and ran his hand through his hair.

"What is it, Mack?" He said timidly. He was overjoyed to have a baby with Mackenzie, but her expression made him wonder if she wasn't feeling the same.

"Jax. Jax, we're having a baby. I get to be a mom." She said, her eyes swelling with tears as she beamed up at him. He let out a laugh with his sigh of relief and shook his head.

"Mackenzie, you're already a mom, but now we're going to have a new little fighter on our hands." Jax said brightly. He leaned in and kissed her lips with passion. He pulled back sooner than she wanted.

"I guess this is a good time to tell you why I left early this morning." Jax said, pulling out a small, black box from his kutte.


	12. Chapter 12

Mackenzie's eyes widened as she looked at the box in Jax's hand. She took a couple deep breaths and bit her bottom lip. Jax smiled and took her left hand, planting a soft kiss on the top of it. He looked around the room as his smile faded.

"What is it, Jax?" She asked, concerned with what must be going through his head. He looked back at her and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Mack. Not here. I don't want you to get this in a fucking doctor's office. We can go on an actual date or something, hell we can just get out to the parking lot." The four walls started to feel like they were closing in around him. Ever since the battle Abel had been through, Jax had detested doctor's offices. Mackenzie kissed him briefly on the cheek as the door opened and Jax slipped the box back in his kutte.

"Ms. Bradshaw, I have your appointment all set and ready. It's going to be tomorrow morning with Dr. Kalowski. They're office is just down the hall, ok?" Karen said with a big smile as she handed Mackenzie the appointment card. Jax flashed the nurse a grin as he and Mackenzie stood to follow her out of the office.

"Ms. Bradshaw, do you have an insurance card I can get on file?" The clerk at the window asked. Mackenzie bit her lip and shook her head. The clerk frowned a little, punching some keys on her keyboard.

"Just send us the bill, darlin." Jax said, rubbing the small of Mackenzie's back. He could feel her loosen up, but just barely. They headed back to their car in silence. Mackenzie looked out of the window as Jax pulled the car out onto the road.

"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours, babe?" Jax asked after a few more minutes of silence. Mackenzie sighed and turned from the window. She didn't trust herself not to look at him, so she just looked at his hand that was intertwined with her own.

"Jax, I need to get some type of job. You've been paying for the last hospital stay and I know that shit's not cheap." Mackenzie said with a sigh as Jax snapped his head forward to focus on the road. She had a feeling this wasn't going to go so well.

"It doesn't matter if it's cheap or not, Mackenzie. You've been too hurt to get some job and now you're pregnant. I'm not sending you out to work when you're carrying our child. Maybe when the kid's older. For now, no." Jax said with as little emotion as possible. Mackenzie looked over at him and narrowed her eyes.

"Jax, I'm pregnant. I'm not dying. Plenty of women work during their pregnancy." Mackenzie snapped at him. Jax glanced over at her and caught her glare. He rolled his eyes and looked back at the road.

"Okay, Mackenzie. Say I was okay with you getting a job. What do you have experience in?" Jax said with a smartass smirk that irritated Mackenzie.

"I know where you're going with this, Jax. I can get an entry-level job somewhere. I mean, I have experience in the service industry." Mackenzie said stubbornly. Jax put the car in park in their driveway and hurried around to her side to open the door. Once they were in the house, he flung the keys on the counter and turned to look at her.

"Seriously? The only two jobs you've told me about were you being a cop and you dancing on some bar while you were in college. Which one you referring to as service?" Jax asked with that same smartass grin. Mackenzie threw her bag down on the counter behind him.

"I was a bartender, Jax. Dancing was only part of the job. Who the hell are you to judge me for doing that in college? Your best friend's wife is a porn star, you fucking own part of the porn studio and you've got whores swarming around your club day in and day out." She said, realizing her voice had gotten louder with frustration. Jax sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Mack, if I wanted a porn star or a croweater, I wouldn't have asked you to marry me. I get that you did it to put yourself through school, but I don't want you around a bunch of drunks. Baby, why can't you just let me take care of us for a while? After the kid comes, you can start lookin' for something if that's what you really want." Jax said, wrapping his arms around Mackenzie's waist and pulling her closer to him. She wasn't done with the conversation, but she didn't feel like fighting with him, not today.

"So, are you going to call your mom or should I?" Mackenzie asked with a grin as she kissed him on the neck. Jax laughed and shook his head, his eyes lightening now that the argument had at least paused.

"She can wait. I want this to just be our news for a little bit. You feel okay?" Jax asked with a soft voice. Mackenzie nodded, resting her head on his shoulder. "Good, we're going to dinner tonight."

Mackenzie looked down at the faded jeans and Counting Crows t-shirt and looked back up at him in horror. He laughed and let her go, slapping her playfully on the ass as she went to go get ready. He flipped open his phone and dialed Gemma.

"So, what'd the doctor say?" Gemma rushed as she answered. Jax looked up at the ceiling and took a beat.

"We've got to see a specialist in the morning. She's gonna be okay, we're just taking it all in right now." Jax said, omitting any actual news.

"Oh, god, Jackson is it cancer?" Gemma said frantically. Jax cringed at how dramatic and anxious she was being. He sighed.

"No, Mom, she's fine. Look, can you keep the rugrat tonight? I want to take her out to dinner and we've got to be at the specialist's pretty early." Jax said, hoping to throw Gemma into another topic.

"Yeah, that's no problem, Jax." She said, Jax silently thanked her for not pushing the subject. He took a deep breath.

"If you aren't too busy could we have a family dinner tomorrow night? We kind of want to announce something to everyone." He said quickly.

"She's gonna be my daughter isn't she?" Gemma said excitedly. She didn't wait for his response. "Whole family will be there. Eight tomorrow." With that, Jax heard the phone disconnect. He shook his head with a smile, knowing that Gemma was going to kill him for keeping this from her until then.

Mackenzie looked up from the hair straightener as Jax walked in and took his clothes off and hopped in the shower. She was almost tempted to join him, but really didn't want to undo the war she was waging with her hair. She hummed to herself as she finished her hair and moved on to her make-up. She watched Jax through the mirror as he got out and grinned over at her.

"Sittin' on the dock of the bay?" He guessed at her humming. She smiled and nodded as he kissed the top of her head before going into the bedroom to get dressed. She felt herself tighten as she yearned for him just from the sight of his muscular, tattooed back walking into their room. She finished up her make-up and headed out, stopping dead in her tracks as she saw Jax in khakis and a red and black plaid shirt. He had his hair combed back and was just tying his shoe when he caught her looking at him.

"We share a closed, darlin. You know I have other clothes." He said with a laugh. She knew he was referring to the blue jeans and t-shirts he normally wore, with the occasional hoodie or faded flannel shirt. This was an entirely different look than she was used to.

"I know, I just thought they were there for show." She said with a grin before going to her side of the closet and flipping through her own clothes. She settled on a black, form fitting dress with lace sleeves and a pair of thigh high black boots. As Jax zipped the dress up for her, she shrugged.

"I might as well wear it while I can." She explained with a smile. He bit his lip, almost considering bending her over the bed and ditching dinner all together. He made a tough call and took her hand, leading her out of the bedroom and towards the front door.

"If we stayed in there another minute, we'd never make it to dinner." He said, looking his woman up and down again before groaning quietly and grabbing the car keys. Mackenzie paused at the open door and raised her brow.

"Jax, aren't you forgetting something?" She asked, motioning to him. He looked down and realized she was referring to his kutte. He grinned and shook his head.

"No, babe. Tonight's just us. No club." He said, guiding her out towards the car with his hand on her back. She felt light and happy as they rode to the restaurant chatting about how to tell Abel and if it was going to be a boy or girl.

They were seated at a table for two in the Thai restaurant in Lodi she had mentioned she'd wanted to go to a couple weeks ago. She looked around and noticed, for once, people weren't staring at them. Of course, the waitress gave Jax some extra eyeing and a group of guys looked her over, but there were no fearful or intimidated stares.

"Mackenzie?" Jax said with a smile, pulling her attention back in. She smiled and turned back to him. "I know we've only been together for a few months, but that doesn't stop how I feel about you. I love you, Mackenzie Bradshaw. I'll do anything to protect you and keep you happy. I'm so happy we get to add to our family and love that you've taken Abel on as your own. You're an amazing woman, baby." He took her hand and slipped a ring onto it with a smile. She felt tears well up in her eyes as she looked down at it.

"Jax, this is too much!" She said, leaning forward and getting a closer look. It was set in white gold or platinum, which meant that he paid attention when she'd avoided wearing anything yellow gold. The metal hardly mattered on the ring since you could barely see it. There was a oval cut diamond surround by smaller diamonds in an ornate design which even continued around the band, leaving only a small bare metal section on the bottom.

Mackenzie looked up, still shaking her head as she smiled over at him. He was smiling brightly as he took a drink from his soda. She felt the weight of the ring on her finger, noticing that it left little room between her hand and finger joint. She knew it was too much, but knew better than to hurt Jax by refusing it.

"I love you, Jackson Teller. You've made me the happiest woman by bringing me into your family and now I get to give you even more." Mackenzie said as a tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. He grinned at her as the waitress sat their plates in front of them. The grin faltered a little as he looked down at his plate and raised his brow at Mackenzie.

"It's pad thai, you'll like it. Trust me, baby." Mackenzie said with a giggle as she picked up her fork and started eating her pad see eau slowly. She raised her eyes over her fork and watched him taste some of his food hesitantly. His face was priceless as he smelled it and then ate it. She watched as his eyebrows raised in pleasant surprise and he shrugged before eating more.

Dinner was mostly quiet, due to Jax noticing how hungry Mackenzie was and the fact that his mouth was on fire from the spice. Once he settled the bill, they headed back home. Jax flew down the highway at highly illegal speeds as he enjoyed the sound of Mackenzie singing along with the radio.

After kicking off her boots in the bedroom, she rolled to her side and grabbed Jax by the waistband of his pants and pulled him on the bed with her. He smiled as he tangled his fingers in her hair before kissing her deeply. She moaned softly, causing her mouth to open as Jax slipped his tongue into her mouth and rolled it softly with hers.

His hand moved down to her thigh, where he pushed the bottom of her dress up around her hips. He broke their lips apart and kissed her bare chest, nipping softly as his hand wrapped around and gripped her ass. Mackenzie ran her hand through his soft, blonde hair and let out a small gasp as he slid a finger beneath her black, lacy panties. He smiled against her skin as he pulled her back off the bed with his less occupied hand.

"Baby, you are fucking sexy in this dress, but it's getting in the way of what I want now." He growled as he unzipped it before letting her lay back. She pulled her arms free of the sleeves and raised her hips, letting him pull it down and off of her. "That's better." He said with a lusty smirk.

Mackenzie worked on unbuttoning his shirt as he ran his hands up her waist and to her breasts. She bit her bottom lip and bucked her hips a little as Jax took one of her perky nipples into his mouth and ran his tongue in circles around it. She shoved his shirt open and ran her hand down his rippled chest, pausing slightly on the scar above his hip. She had wanted to ask him about it, but the feel of her panties being yanked down distracted her.

Jax traced his fingers up from her warm, wet opening to her clit, making her moan long and quietly. She felt her bottom jaw go lax in pleasure as he slipped a ringed finger into her, enjoying the cold metal of his SO ring against her sensitive skin. "Oh-h-h, god Jax," she moaned, feeling herself building up more and more. She was on the brink of complete release when he pulled out his finger and put it in his mouth as he undid his pants with his other hand.

"Jesus Christ, Mackenzie, taste so good baby." Jax said as he sucked the warm, sweetness from his finger. He kicked off his shoes and threw off his pants and boxers before rejoining the eagerly awaiting woman he had in the bed they shared. He was almost aching with desire, but he longed to taste more of her. He ran his finger between her wet lips and licked it off his finger as she watched with wide eyes.

Normally Jax would have already been waist deep in her by this point, but Mackenzie noticed he was taking his time. He gripped her inner thigh and pushed it down on the bed, opening her more to him. She watched as he bent his head down and ran his tongue between her lips and around her sensitive, swollen clit. He moaned against her as he slipped two fingers into her and massaged the spot he knew she loved. She couldn't hold on any longer, exploding around his fingers and he massaged her with his tongue.

Jax smiled as he felt her tighten around him as she called his name loudly. He let her just barely catch her breath before sliding his dick into her dripping body. Her breathing quickened as he moved in and out of her, slowly at first and then quicker and deeper.

"God, baby, you're perfect. Mmmm yeah, like that." Jax moaned as she rotated her hips in little circles. She felt the oncoming of another orgasm just before he groaned and grabbed her waist, slamming her onto him as far as possible. Both of them panted as they reached the peak together. He leaned his head back and looked at the ceiling as he caught his breath.

"Damn, Mack." He said with a wicked grin as he kiss her mouth before rolling out of her. She smiled as she watched him walk into their bathroom, loving every minute she saw his back piece.

He finished cleaning up and came back to bed. She smiled up at him sleepily as she climbed out of bed to tend to the mixture of her and Jax threatening to run down her leg. She barely made it back to bed after washing up before she fell asleep. Jax chuckled as he covered her up and pulled her closer to him.

He set the alarm on his phone before turning on his side to face Mackenzie's back. He wrapped his arm around her, resting his palm on her stomach with a smile as he drifted off to sleep.

**I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that has followed, favorited, or reviewed this story :) I hope you all love this update as much as I do. I'm sorry if there are mistakes, I was to excited to update and my proofreading ****detierorates****at around 5:00 am. Goodnight all lol :)**


	13. Chapter 13

"Jax, if you don't shut that alarm off I'm going to scream." Mackenzie grumbled with her faced down in the pillow. She'd slept like a rock, but was never one to turn down more sleep. Jax did as she asked before rolling on to his side and rubbing her back gently. She turned her head towards him and blew some hair out of her face, causing him to smile and struggle with concealing a laugh.

"Mackenzie, we've got to get going so we can make it to the appointment." Jax said, planting a kiss on her forehead before sliding out of bed. Mackenzie rolled over and watched Jax as he pulled on a pair of jeans and a navy blue, reaper crew, t-shirt.

"Woman, are you going to stare at me or get your ass up out of bed?" Jax said, laughing as he pulled on his white sneakers. Mackenzie let out a dramatic sigh before swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She dangled her feet for a minute before hopping off the bed and pulling on a pair of jeans and a pink button down shirt. Jax watched as she poked her stomach softly with her index finger.

"Darlin, what are you doing?" Jax said, eyeing Mackenzie as he shrugged his kutte on. Mackenzie looked up at him and pouted.

"I used to be super fit and run all the time. I've been healing, so I couldn't work out and got out of shape. Now I'm pregnant and that makes me so happy, but I'm going to get fat and." Mackenzie was saying.

"Mack, you're going to be pregnant, not fat and don't you dare say I'm not going to think your sexy or I'm going to want someone smaller. Whatever insecure shit is in your head, get it out. I love you and I don't even think about road ass now that we're together, so just don't." Jax said, cutting her off. He scowled at her for a minute before pulling her to him and giving her a kiss.

"Let's go get in your damn cage and see what the doctor has to say." He said with a smile as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her out of the house.

" ? It's nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Kalowski." A brunette woman said, walking into the room with a medical chart and taking a seat on a rolling stool. Mackenzie smiled and waited as the doctor reviewed her chart, nodding and hmmm'ing ever so often.

"Alright, so what we're going to do is go ahead and do a sonogram right now so we can get an eye on that little on and see how Mom's doing as well, okay?" The doctor said smiling and calling in a technician. Mackenzie felt anxious about the possibility of bad news, but as she looked over at Jax, she took a deep breath and felt a little better.

Mackenzie lifted her shirt up and shivered as the technician squirted some cold jelly on her stomach. She heard Jax laugh a little and rolled her eyes. The technician just smiled and ran a wand around on her stomach. Dr. Kalowski put a hand on the technician's shoulder and walked over to the screen. She pointed at a little blip on the monitor and turned to Mackenzie.

"That is your baby. It looks healthy, I would guess probably about six weeks old. With that, I'd put your due date at no later than July 4th. Now, I do see some scar tissue but we'll just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't cause any problems. From what I see now, everything looks great." Dr. Kalowski explained before pressing a couple buttons on the monitor.

"Is that her heartbeat?" Jax asked, speaking for the first time since the doctor came in. Mackenzie looked over at Jax and nodded as a happy tear ran down her face. He smiled and looked over at the monitor until the technician turned it off and handed him a few printouts of what they'd seen.

"Thank you, Kimberly." Dr. Kalowski said, waiting for the technician to leave the room. She sat back down on the stool and looked from Mackenzie to Jax before speaking. "Now, all though everything looks good now, you do need to take some precautions. No dangerous activities, like riding on the back of motorcycles. Keep your stress as low as possible and definitely no heavy lifting. Other than that, you can keep at your normal routine for now." Dr. Kalowski said implying that they could still have sex. Mackenzie blushed a little, making Jax laugh a little.

The doctor gave them some pamphlets and a card for their next appointment, along with her personal cell number in case anything came up. Jax and Mackenzie headed out of the office hand in hand. Once the elevator doors closed, Jax pulled Mackenzie to him and kissed her softly. Mackenzie leaned forward on her tiptoes and deepened the kiss, pulling him down towards her.

The doors to the elevator opened and they pulled apart slowly. Jax was looking down at her as they stepped out onto the sidewalk when she froze. He followed her gaze and saw an older, balding man in a suit standing outside of the police station. He noticed three men standing a few feet away from him, obviously doing security.

Mackenzie pulled Jax in the opposite direction of their car and the police station. She did her best to look inconspicuous while getting away from the man as quickly as possible. Jax was right beside her with his hand on her lower back.

"Mackenzie!" A woman exclaimed, stepping out of a black suv parked a few feet in front of them. Mackenzie stopped suddenly, leaning into Jax and breathing rapidly. The older woman stretched her arms out towards Mackenzie with a smile. She looked harmless in a pant-suit with her graying hair.

"Grace, what are you doing here?" Mackenzie asked, using a fake voice that Jax had only heard in the hospital while talking to the police. He was scowling at the woman until he heard footsteps coming up behind them. The man from the police station was walking towards them, security detail in tow. Jax pulled Mackenzie closer to him once the woman dropped her arms from their awkward hug.

"Sweetheart, I'm so glad you're here. Now I know why Bryan came up here. He said the two of you were making up. Where is he?" Grace said looking into Mackenzie's eyes with a smile. Mackenzie didn't understand how it wasn't obvious that she was with Jax. She put on a fake smile and swallowed back the vomit that was rising in her throat.

"Oh, Grace he came up on day and we talked, but that was it. I've moved on and he understood that. He wasn't happy but I haven't seen him in over two months." Mackenzie said, leaning even further on Jax. He was planning on how to sell this, but it was hard focusing when he was worried about Mackenzie. They'd just been told to keep her stress down, and now this shit.

"Young lady, you need to give us more than that. There wasn't any other reason for my son to come to this little backwards town. Where is he?" The man who had joined Grace asked, baring his eyes into Mackenzie. She looked back at Grace, not wanting to see Tony's eyes. She felt a panic rush over her. She honestly had no idea where they'd put Bryan.

"Mackenzie, we need to get on the road. I've got to be at work soon." Jax said as he rubbed her lower back again to soothe her nerves. He had all intentions to go to TM, but it wasn't for work. The man turned his glare on Jax and shook his head.

"You went from dating my son to this, white-trash? He could be Mayor one day and you just throw that away and break his heart?" Tony said, taking a step towards Mackenzie. Jax, pulled Mackenzie behind him and stood his ground.

"I don't appreciate you speaking to her like that." Jax said plainly. Mackenzie could hear the threat dripping from his words, but wasn't sure Tony was smart enough to pick up on it. Jax nudged Mackenzie back towards the car and took a couple steps backwards before turning his back to Bryan's parents and their security team.

They got in the Challenger and made the short drive over to TM without a word. Mackenzie could hardly breath as she got out of the car and headed straight to the clubhouse. Jax called for all the Sons to come inside as he picked Abel up and followed Mackenzie in. She was sitting on a leather couch and held her arms up for Abel as Jax sat him in her lap.

"Gramma gave me two popsicles! A red one and a blue one!" Abel said, smiling and holding up his stained hands. Mackenzie laughed and kissed his little fingers as she pulled him in closer, feeling the tightness in her chest loosen a little.

"What's going on?" Clay said as he walked into the clubhouse. Jax was standing behind the couch with his hands on Mackenzie's shoulders, looking down at Abel. He looked up and watched as Clay's face loosened from its scowl a little.

"People showed up looking for that ass that beat the shit out of Mackenzie." Jax growled. Abel's head shot up and looked at his dad.

"Momma's hurt?" Abel asked with his bottom lip trembling. Mackenzie shook her head and kissed him on the temple.

"No, little man, I'm not hurt. It was a long time ago. Why don't you go get a coloring book and we'll go color with Jessie?" Mackenzie offered, setting him down off her lap. He looked excited and ran back towards Jax's dorm room that he kept to mostly store Abel's stuff for his time at TM.

"It's his parents. His dad has a security team since he used to be Mayor. Grace was always oblivious to the shit Bryan did, but Tony knows. He saw him kicking me one day." Mackenzie said as she stood up and followed Abel over to the bar where Jessie was helping him up on a stool.

Jax turned to Happy with a serious expression. Happy didn't even need to hear Jax's question before he started nodding.

"It was clean, brother. No one is going to find anything. Truck's at the bottom of a lake, wiped and burned. Our hands aren't on this Jax." Happy said, nodding his head slowly and clapping Jax on the back. Clay nodded slowly and glanced over at Mackenzie.

"She a threat to say anything?" Clay asked Jax. Jax scowled at him and clenched his fist.

"She's no damn rat." Jax spat through gritted teeth. Clay nodded but didn't seem to convinced. "Don't mess with her. Leave it as I said. She's not some rat and you aren't going to fuck with her."

Clay tensed at Jax's words, but he remained silent. He lit a cigarette and raised his brow as Jax told the others what story they needed to stick to.

"Look, anybody asks, no one knows him or ever saw him except me. Juice, Opie, you two were at the hospital the most, just say it was a car wreck if anyone asks. They can't get shit from the doctors so what we say goes. Chibs, call Unser and make sure he's on the same page. Tell him to talk to my mom if he has any questions. No one outside of this club is to come near Mackenzie or my son." Jax ordered, looking around at his brothers. It comforted him to know that none of them would ever let anything hurt his family. For that, he loved them.


	14. Chapter 14

"Daddy, look!" Abel said happily as he shook a page from his coloring book towards Jax. He'd been working hard on staying inside the lines while he colored. Jax took the picture in his hands and smiled, looking down at the now blue motorcycle.

"Looks awesome, little man. Are you wanting a blue motorcycle when you grow up?" Jax asked, pulling Abel up in his arms. Abel shook his head with a smile.

"No, Daddy, I want a black one like yours." He said before burying his face in the crook of Jax's neck. Mackenzie smiled as the two people she loved most shared such a sweet moment. She felt her hand go to her own, flat stomach automatically. She started wondering what the little one would be like. How they would look, talk, and act, not to mention if Abel would have a little brother or sister.

The happy thoughts of her new little family almost wiped away the worry in Mackenzie's mind. Jax, however, was super focused on the new threat to his family. He kissed Mackenzie on the top of her head and took her hand, walking back towards his dorm. Abel was sound asleep by the time he opened the door.

"Mack, are you doing okay?" Jax asked after laying Abel down on the bed. Mackenzie nodded slowly.

"How long do you think they'll stay in Charming?" She spoke quietly as Jax wrapped his arms around her, pulling them together.

"Once they realize he's not here, they'll have no reason to stay. Shouldn't take them too long." Jax whispered in her ear. He hoped he was right, but regardless of the concerns he had, his focus was to make sure Mackenzie didn't worry.

"I'm going to take a nap with Abel." Mackenzie told Jax with a yawn. He nodded and kissed her lips softly before letting her go. He could see her eyes shining a little with tears, but knew better than to press her. She took off her boots and crawled underneath the covers next to Abel, pulling him close to her. She closed her eyes tightly, hoping Jax didn't see her cry before he left.

Jax closed the door softly behind him. He closed his eyes and leaned his back against the hallway wall with a deep breath. Chibs rounded the corner and stopped short when he saw Jax standing there. "Ay, Jacky boy. I was looking for ya. There's a problem at tha gate. Prospect won't let 'em in, but they won't leave. Askin for Mackenzie." Chibs briefed Jax as he stormed down the hallway and across the clubhouse.

"Happy, Chibs, Opie, with me." Jax barked as he flung the door to the garage lot open. He called for the prospect to open the gate, stopping just out from under the overhang with his arms crossed. Chibs and Opie were on either side of him as Happy took a couple steps forward and to the left of his VP.

"Phil, nobody without a kutte gets in that clubhouse." Opie said, directing the large prospect to guard the door. The black SUV parked in the middle of the lot before two large, suited men climbed out. One opened the back door, letting Tony out of the back seat.

"I don't think we got off to a great start, I'm Tony Whitman. You are?" Tony asked with a seemingly pleasant smile as he reached a hand out to Jax. Jax kept his arms folded across his chest, ignoring the old man's weak attempt to be polite.

"Jaxson Teller, but I'm sure you already knew that. Unless something's wrong with your truck, I'm going to have to insist you leave." Jax said evenly as Tony finally retracted his arm. He could tell Happy was getting agitated with Tony's security detail eyeballing him.

"I'm here to talk to Ms. Bradshaw. Do you have any idea who I am?" Tony said with a chuckle. Jax ran his hand over his beard in frustration.

"I couldn't give a fuck less who you are, Mayor. Mackenzie doesn't want to talk." Jax growled as he took a step forward. Tony's security went to back him up, but Happy got in the way.

"Don't push it." Happy said angrily. His eyes were wild and the shorter of the two bodyguards seemed to rethink his actions. Jax put his hand up, looking over at Happy who dropped his hand from the gun he was getting ready to draw.

"Aye, ya can leave whole or with some bullet holes. Up to you but ya're leaving. Now." Chibs spat at the trespassers. Jax could tell he was getting pissed, because the madder he got, the harder it was to understand him.

"If I find out there's been any foul play, you better bet I know where to turn first, Mr. Teller." Tony threw over his shoulder as he retreated to the safety of his SUV. Jax didn't move until the vehicle was out of the lot and the gate was securely closed.

"I'll be in the garage." Jax said flatly, lighting a cigarette and walking off. Opie followed him silently as the Chibs and Happy looked on from a picnic table.

Jax walked over to a chopper that needed a tune up. He was working on a bolt that secured the engine cover unsuccessfully. Five or six minutes later, he hurled the wrench across the garage. There was a loud crash as it smacked into the metal wall. Opie shook his head and walked over to Jax.

"Feel better?" Opie asked sarcastically. Jax dropped another wrench down to the floor before looking up at his brother. His eyes were dark.

"I will once that dick is out of Charming. Mackenzie can't take this shit right now." Jax sighed, standing up and running both hands through his hair.

"How far along is she?" Opie asked quietly. Jax raised his brow and hesitated for a minute.

"How did you know?" Jax tried to recall if he'd said anything to give it away.

"I didn't. You just confirmed it though. Figured you wouldn't worry about her being stressed if something wasn't going on." Opie smiled while he clapped Jax's shoulder in brotherly love. "That's what dinner's for isn't it?"

"Yeah, that and we're getting married." Jax said, smiling at the thought of Mackenzie's face at dinner last night.

"That's awesome, brother. I'll try to act surprised later." Opie said with a laugh. Jax laughed and nodded.

"You brining Lyla?" Jax asked, making Opie redden a little. "Ope, she's a good girl, you're allowed to be happy." Opie nodded and twisted the end of his beard around his finger before heading off towards the clubhouse silently. Jax took a deep breath and straightened his kutte before following his brother.

Jax was sitting at the bar with a warm beer he'd barely touched when Mackenzie walked up with Abel in tow. She recognized the worried expression on his face before he caught sight of them. She ran her hand over the back of his leather kutte and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek.

"Hey darlin' you and the little man have a good nap?" Jax asked as he pulled Abel up onto his lap.

"Yeah, but you shouldn't have let us sleep that long. We need to head over to Gemma's soon, don't we?" Mackenzie asked with a small nod towards Abel. They'd agreed to tell Abel about the life changes coming up before dinner. Jax grinned and nodded as she swung Abel up to sit on his shoulders with a little squeal of delight. He followed Mackenzie back to his dorm room, ducking a little so Abel wouldn't get knocked out on the doorframe.

"Hey, buddy Mackenzie and I wanted to talk to you before we go to Gramma's for dinner, okay?" Jax said as he dropped Abel down softly on the bed. Abel giggled for a minute before climbing up on Mackenzie's lap as she sat on the bed next to him.

"What would you think about Daddy and I getting married?" Mackenzie asked Abel with a smile. He turned his head a little and looked at Jax.

"Marry Momma?" Abel said, a little lost on the meaning of the question. Jax nodded and leaned forward, taking Abel's hand in his.

"That means that Daddy and Mackenzie would be together forever." Jax explained, hoping the simple explanation would help Abel understand. Abel smiled and nodded.

"Little man, you're gonna be a big boy soon. So, when Daddy has to go away sometimes, you've got to take care of Momma, okay?" Jax said, ruffling his sons blonde hair. Abel nodded and hugged Mackenzie.

"You know what else? You're going to have to take care of a little brother or sister soon to, baby boy." Mackenzie said quietly as she kissed his forehead. He looked up at her and frowned a little.

"Abel, Mackenzie and I are always going to love you. Soon you get to be a big brother and have even more people to love you." Jax said with a smile. He remembered how he felt when Gemma told him she was having Thomas, so he had a feeling Abel was worried about being pushed aside.

"Abel, we're going to keep it a secret until you, me and Daddy tell everyone at dinner okay? You think you might want to tell everybody?" Mackenzie asked, sneaking a glance up at Jax. Abel got excited and nodded happily.

"Pwease?" Abel asked Jax, bouncing on Mackenzie's lap. Jax laughed and nodded as he stood up.

"Okay little man. I'll tell you when to tell everybody, okay?" Jax said, grabbing Abel and setting his feet on the floor. Abel made a zipper like motion over his mouth and smiled. Mackenzie laughed and followed Jax and Abel to the car.

**a/n: Thank you all for the reviews, follows and favorites :) If you have any thoughts of what you'd like to see coming up, don't hesitate to message me or leave it in the reviews! **


	15. Chapter 15

"It's about time you three got here. You feeling any better?" Gemma asked as Jax walked in his mother's house with Abel on his shoulders. Mackenzie nodded with a smile as she gave Gemma a little hug.

"Alright, well dinner is about to hit the table so go sit down." She said, ushering Mackenzie inside before closing the door. As she walked in the large dining room, everybody called out heys and about times as she sat down next to Jax. She looked over at the blonde sitting next to Opie.

"You must be Lyla." She guessed with a smile as the woman nodded with a nervous smile. "I'm Mackenzie."

"I know. Opie and Jax talk about you all the time." She said with a little laugh. Mackenzie blushed and returned Lyla's smile as Gemma sat a large roast on the table. Juice reached out to grab a roll and Chibs smacked his hand, taking a roll first and then passing the basket to his right.

The table was full of food, small talk and laughing as everyone relaxed in Gemma and Clay's house. Mackenzie was chatting with Lyla when she felt Abel tugging on the bottom of her shirt. She gave him a smile and looked over at Jax. Jax nodded and stood up, taking Abel in his arm. Everyone stopped talking and turned their attention on the VP as he looked around at his family.

"Mackenzie and want to thank everybody for all their help and love during the last few months. It's been rough sometimes, but all of you were there no matter what. So, we wanted to let you all know that we're getting married." Jax said, putting his heart on his sleeve as Mackenzie smiled brightly. The room erupted with congratulations and hugs and kisses for the couple. Jax let it go on for a few minutes before continuing.

"Thanks. There's something else though. Abel do you want to tell them?" Jax asked as he pulled Mackenzie closer to him and kissing the top of her head lightly. Abel nodded and everyone stared at him, waiting for the news. Jax laughed and looked at his son. "You can tell them, little man."

"I'm going to get a little sister." Abel said loudly before getting embarrassed and hiding his face in Jax's shoulder. Mackenzie chuckled and held up her hand.

"Well, it might also be a little brother but we're pregnant." She said blushing a little at all the attention. Gemma stood up and clapped before pulling Mackenzie into a big hug.

"I knew there was a reason I didn't kick your ass to the curb after almost killing the Scott." Gemma said as she looked at her future daughter in law. Mackenzie laughed nervously as Gemma turned her attention on Jax.

"You don't think you could have told me that sooner?" She scolded him as he smirked down at her. Abel reached out for her and smiled as she took him in her arms.

There was another round of congratulations before Gemma hurried into the kitchen to get the large cake she'd made to celebrate their engagement. Abel fell asleep halfway through eating his slice of cake. The party was going well and had moved into the living room as everyone asked questions about the wedding and when the baby was due. Gemma was still smiling as she went to answer the door.

"Can I help you?" Gemma asked curtly at the sheriff standing in the doorway. Sheriff Unser looked at her uncomfortably as he stepped into the house.

"Sorry to interrupt, Gemma. I've got to take Ms. Bradshaw down to the station." He said, looking straight at Mackenzie as she stiffened on Jax's lap. Jax narrowed his eyes and stood up slowly after Mackenzie rose to her feet.

"Like hell. What's this about Wayne?" Clay said as he walked up behind Gemma. He could tell Gemma was struggling to hold back from attacking Unser.

"Can't talk about that, Clay. It's an ongoing investigation." He said, starting to get uncomfortable. He'd told his deputies to stay at the station, thinking he wouldn't need back up.

"Is she under arrest?" Jax growled, stepping in front of Mackenzie to shield her from whatever threat came their way. Unser sighed and ran a palm over his balding scalp.

"No, Jax. She's not under arrest. We've got some questions for her though." He said, hoping to deescalate the situation. It didn't work.

"What do you mean, we? Last time I checked you've still got the badge. You can ask her questions here or somewhere in town tomorrow. My pregnant daughter in law isn't going to sit in some dingy room at your station." Gemma snapped, taking a step towards her long time friend in the uniform.

"This is coming from higher up. They sent me because I'm a friend of the family. Granted I didn't know the whole club would be here." Unser said, swallowing hard as he looked around the living room. Opie and Chibs were already standing on either side of Mackenzie as Happy stared at him with cold eyes from his seat on the couch.

"If you don't let her go, I'll have to charge you all with obstruction of justice." Unser said firmly. Happy laughed darkly as he rose to his feet, welcoming the threat.

"I'll go." Mackenzie said with a sigh as she stepped out from behind Jax. He looked down at her and shook his head.

"No. This is bullshit coming from that fucker and his dumb bitch of a wife. You don't have to answer shit." Jax told her as she gave him a weak smile. Unser was starting to feel relieved.

"Babe, it's fine. I haven't done anything wrong. Nobody here has done anything wrong. That's just how power abusing fathers throw their weight around and get their thumbs on weak law enforcement. You mind riding with me?" She said, grabbing her purse and keys to the Challenger. Jax knew that arguing would make them look guilty.

"Yeah, I'm coming." He said, giving in and taking the keys from her. Happy nodded and clapped his hand on Jax's shoulder.

"Me to." Happy grumbled as he stared at the sheriff. Unser realized arguing would either make thing worse or quicken his trip to the grave so he just nodded and walked out to his cruiser. He felt bad for the Whitmans, knowing better than to think the Sons would stay outside during the questioning. That pit in his stomach grew larger as everyone but Lyla and a few croweaters filed out of the Morrow residence.

"Mack, just because you're going down there doesn't mean you have to answer shit." Jax said as he gripped the steering wheel tightly. Mackenzie laughed and looked over at him.

"Jaxson Teller, you think I don't know that. I used to be a cop, remember? If I'm in there for more than an hour, have Lohen drop by." She said, looking out of the windshield at the back of the police car. She knew this was a Whitman scare tactic, but she also knew her rights.

Mackenzie climbed out of the car once Jax cut the engine. Happy was right by her side with a smile. She looked up at him, almost afraid to ask what he was smiling about. With a man like Happy, that was never a safe question.

"If they piss you off just throw up on them." He said quietly as he held the door open for Mackenzie to follow Jax inside. She couldn't help but laugh, causing Jax to look back at her quizzically. Happy shrugged and followed them as the rest of SAMCRO filed into the tiny police station.

"What is this, Sheriff?" Tony Whitman yelled as he came out of Unser's office. Unser shook his head and looked back at the Sons of Anarchy.

"This is what happens when you interrupt a family dinner. Of all the people in Charming eating dinner right now, you picked them. Hope you and the DA are happy with this shit." Unser said, laughing a little at how anxious the ex-mayor looked as he faced down the entire Redwood chapter.

"Can we just get this over with? I don't feel well and I may get sick." Mackenzie said, dropping Jax's hand and heading into Unser's office. Happy laughed at her comment.

"Told her to puke on them if she got pissed." Happy explained as Jax shot him a look. The VP seemed to relax a little at the thought.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this, Mackenzie. I needed to have you answer some questions and your boyfriend out there wasn't making that easy." Tony said as he sat down in Unser's high back chair. Unser leaned up against the closed door and folded his arms across his chest.

"Jax is my fiancé, not my boyfriend. Like I said, I don't feel good so go ahead and ask." Mackenzie said as she stood in front of the large oak desk. She wasn't planning on staying in the room long enough to need a seat.

"Where is my son, Mackenzie?" Tony asked, cutting out the pleasantries. Mackenzie shrugged.

"I don't know or care." Mackenzie said in complete honesty. Tony's eyes flashed with anger, just as Bryan's used to.

"You lying bitch. You know something and you aren't telling me. Why were you in the hospital shortly after he came up here? Say the wrong thing again?" He asked, trying to get a rise out of the girl.

"Car wreck." Mackenzie said simply, ignoring his dig at she and Bryan's previous altercations.

"I can have you arrested. You and your trash outside." Tony threatened her as she gave him a dark grin. Unser laughed, knowing she must be mimicking Happy to the best of her abilities.

"No, you can't. If those are all of your questions, I'm leaving. I can't spend the whole night listening to your empty threats." She said with a shrug as she opened the office door. She walked down the hall and had made it almost half way to the exit when a hand grabbed her wrist and yanked back hard.

Mackenzie was pulled back to Tony's face before he shoved her against a wall. Unser was about to pull him off when Jax beat him to it. He swung and connected a fist with the side of Tony's face as nine guns were drawn and pointed at either Tony or his guards that had rushed up from the break room down the hall. Unser put his own hands up slowly as Jax hit the man again.

"Jax." Mackenzie strained as she grabbed at her back. Her voice pulled Jax out of blind fury and he looked up at her. She was pale and sliding down to the tile floor as he rushed to her side.

"Please, take me home Jax. I don't want to be here." She cried, worrying that the tiny baby in her stomach was somehow injured when she'd been thrown against the wall. Jax nodded and scooped her up in his arms. He didn't bother looking back as Unser tried to talk the rest of the club down. Gemma stowed her pistol and followed her son and Mackenzie out to the parking lot.

"Mom, bring Abel to our house and stay with Mackenzie. If he asks just tell him y'all are going to the park tomorrow or something." Jax said as he lowered Mackenzie into the car. "I'm calling church and we're going to deal with this shit."


	16. Chapter 16

"Gemma, I want Jax here. I don't care about payback or whatever he's dealing with. I want him to be here." Mackenzie sobbed as she crawled into their bed. Gemma frowned and sat down next to her. She'd been through so much with her ex and now she couldn't even rest with him in the ground. Gemma brushed her hand over Mackenzie's forehead before heading into the kitchen.

"Gramma? Momma is sad." Abel summarized with a trembling bottom lip. Gemma frowned and picked the little boy up after setting the tea kettle on the stove.

"It's okay, Abel. Sometimes grown-ups are sad but we just have to make sure to be there for them. You know, I bet she would love one of your pictures. Why don't you draw one for her?" Gemma suggested with a forced smile. Abel nodded in agreement and took off to his room as soon as Gemma sat him down.

"Here's some tea, Mackenzie. You hurting anywhere sweetheart?" Gemma put the mug on the bedside table and started putting folded clothes away for something to do.

"You don't have to do that, Gem. My back hurts a little, but I've had worse." Mackenzie rolled over and took the tea graciously. Gemma continued to fill the drawers.

"If Jax and the club go after Tony it's going to end with them in prison. No matter what they end up accomplishing, it hurts me in the end. I'm not one to get involved in club business, but I need Jax here with me, Abel and our little girl." Mackenzie was running her thumb around the lip of the mug, letting the tea grow colder and colder.

"Trust me, darlin'. I get it. Jax is smart but he can't think straight when it comes to you. Where you're involved, all he sees is what makes you safe. Sometimes what makes you safe and what makes you happy can't be the same thing." Gemma said with a sigh as she sat on the foot of the bed, looking at her future daughter-in-law with knowing eyes.

Mackenzie didn't respond. She knew Gemma was right about Jax's focus, but that didn't make it any easier not to worry. She looked up when Abel came running in the room with a piece of paper flapping in the air as he ran.

"Momma, look." Abel climbed up on the bed and crawled into Mackenzie's lap carefully. She smiled and wrapped her arms around him as he turned the picture around for her to see. Mackenzie's heart fluttered as she looked at what he had drawn.

"Oh, Abel." Mackenzie said with a happy tear running down her face. Abel had drawn his father and a very pregnant Mackenzie holding hands, with Abel holding Mackenzie's other hand with a smile. He looked up from the picture and smiled as Mackenzie kissed his forehead.

"Sissy still in your tummy, right?" Abel asked as he put his head on Mackenzie's stomach. She choked out a laugh and nodded. Gemma smiled and took Abel in her arms a couple minutes later.

"Let's get you to bed, little man. Gramma is going to take you to the park tomorrow." She said before Abel could protest. He looked excited and smiled over at Mackenzie.

"Night night Momma." He blew a kiss and she blew one back before Gemma headed down the hall. Mackenzie heard a knock at the door and slowly crawled out of the bed with a groan. The knocking grew louder as she made her way down the hall.

"Hold on for a damn minute." She yelled as she flung the door open, only to find Happy standing in the doorway. She narrowed her eyes and put a hand on her hip. Happy looked down at her in complete silence.

"Where's Jax, Happy? What are you doing here?" Mackenzie growled as Happy made his way inside. He shrugged and took a seat on a kitchen stool.

"He'll be here soon. Still working some shit out with Clay. Said to come watch y'all." Happy explained shortly. Mackenzie didn't have a good feeling. If Jax was sending anyone other than a prospect, things weren't good.

"I guess you wouldn't answer me if I asked you anything." Mackenzie grumbled as she went into the kitchen and grabbed Happy a bottle of water. He took it from her and shook his head to confirm her assumption. She nodded and sat down on the couch as she dialed Jax's number.

"Mack, everything ok? Happy there?" Jax answered quickly without taking the time to say hello. He was digging through a desk drawer in his dorm, looking for his birth certificate.

"He's here. What's going on, Jax? I want you here, not Happy. No offense." She added to Happy. He shrugged and gave her a quick smile.

"I'll be there soon, doll. I'm just trying to find something and I didn't want y'all there alone anymore. Prospect lost the tail on Tony so I can't be too careful." He said honestly. Mackenzie's concern was obvious through her voice. He hated worrying her, but the plan was something he needed to talk to her about in person.

"Please don't do anything stupid, Jax. We need you home. I love you." Mackenzie said as she pulled her knees up closer to her chest. Happy looked away uncomfortably.

"I love you to. I'm on my way." Jax said as he grabbed the envelope he was looking for and headed out to his bike. He and Mackenzie ended the call as he started the Dyna up.

"Hey, Happy?" Mackenzie got his attention as she closed her phone. He raised his brow.

"Do you have an old lady?" Mackenzie asked, curious about the man sitting at the breakfast bar. He shook his head no.

"Would you ever think about getting one?" She asked, realizing he would never volunteer information. He cut his eyes over at her and sat the water bottle down.

"No. Club is all I need. Wouldn't be fair to have an old lady to worry if I'm coming home in a bag or on my Harley. They bitch too much to." Happy said, ending his confession with a more Happy like response. Mackenzie nodded as she took in what he'd said.

She would be lying if she said she didn't worry about that some days. In addition, she also worried about him doing time. The sound of a motorcycle grabbed her attention. She stood up quickly and approached Happy, surprising both of them.

"Take care of Jax, Happy. I need him safe." Mackenzie said sternly. Happy nodded once before Jax walked through the door.

"You okay?" Jax asked as he took Mackenzie in his arms. She nodded and took in the warmth of his arms and the coolness of his leather. He held her for a few minutes before taking her hand and turning towards their bedroom.

"Bye Hap." Mackenzie said with a smile. He sat still and looked at her blankly.

"Mack, Happy's staying. Well, he's taking Gemma home but then he's coming back. He sleeps lighter than I do." Jax explained as he closed the door to their now very clean bedroom. He glanced around as he shrugged his kutte off and toed his shoes off.

"Jax, really? He's not a prospect. You shouldn't make him waste his night here." Mackenzie said before Jax could distract her with his shirtless body.

"Until that tail is picked back up, a patch will be here even when I am. Besides, Happy volunteered. I like when you try to tell me what I can and can't do though. It's sexy." Jax said with a naughty smirk as he peeled his wifebeater off and pulled Mackenzie to him.

"Sexy, huh? Well you can't fuck me until your mother and brother leave, Jaxson." Mackenzie whispered into his ear as he started pulling on the buttons of her top. He laughed sarcastically and continued undoing her shirt. She bit down on the corner of her bottom lip as he ran a hand down from her neck to her stomach.

"You're so beautiful, Mack." He whispered softly before peppering her neck with kisses. She moaned softly at the sensation his lips had on her.

"Jax, they're still here." She groaned as he picked her up by her ass and carried her into bed. Jax shrugged and undid her bra before letting her lie back.

"You said I can't fuck you with them here. I'm not fucking you, Mack. I'm having slow, hot sex with the mother of my child. I'm taking my future wife to bed and I don't care who's on the other side of that door. The closest thing to perfect is in the bed we share and that's all I care about." Jax explained softly while he ran his hands over the softness of her skin.

Mackenzie was shocked by his words. She had no question as to whether or not he loved her, but hearing things like that was still rare and exciting. She pulled his mouth down on to hers and kissed him deeply. Her hands ran down his muscular back, taking note of the slickness of the ink on his back.

Jax scooted her up further towards the pillows and undid her jeans before trailing kisses down her waist. As he pulled her jeans and underwear off, his mouth took their place, kissing softly.

"Oh, god Jax." Mackenzie moaned as he parted with a finger. He was moving slowly, taking his time and keeping things soft and loving. She was already yearning for him when he ran his tongue over her sensitive clit. He kept his tongue flat as he lapped at her slowly, building her up quickly.

"You taste so good, baby." Jax growled with a hint of a moan as he pulled back to undo his jeans. He got them off quickly, but paused as he kneeled between her legs. He ran his thumb over her wet lips and opening as he thought.

"Jax, please." Mackenzie breathed heavily as she looked into his eyes. He smiled slowly as he slid her legs back so her knees were bent and up off the bed.

"I'm sorry baby. I've got to taste more of you. I can't get enough of you." Jax growled before kissing her knee and moving back down to her middle. He moaned with pleasure as he ran his tongue over her again. He pressed his mouth down on her and sucked lightly, sending a tremble through out her whole body.

Mackenzie clawed at the comforter as she grew closer and closer to the edge. Jax massaged her breast with one hand as he continued licking and sucking at her. She moaned loudly as she teetered on the edge of ecstasy. Jax circled her nerve one more time before running his tongue from opening to clit and back again, slow and soft.

"Jax! Oh fuck, Jax!" Mackenzie screamed as the orgasm hit her hard. She could barely breathe from the waves of pleasure coursing up one side and down the other. She panted as she tried to hold on to some bit of reality.

"Shhhh, baby we aren't done yet." Jax whispered as he kissed her neck and sucked on the skin just over the pulsating vein. He knew he'd leave a mark in the back of his mind, but he didn't care. Mackenzie's breathing slowed and Jax smiled, slipping a finger into her.

"God, Mackenzie. Baby you're dripping wet." He said with a delighted smile as he guided his member down, rubbing over her clit and down her part before stretching her insides as he entered her. Mackenzie moaned higher than normal as Jax thrust into her slowly.

"I love you, Mackenzie. I've never loved someone like this before." Jax whisper moaned as she moved her hips in slow synchronization with him. He knew that the release was coming soon, due to her moan and screaming building him up already when he was going down on her.

"Jaxson Teller, I love you too." Mackenzie groaned as she clamped down around him in another, earth rocking release. Jax followed her closely as his body shook with pleasure and he gripped her hips tightly.

"Mack?" Jax mumbled after she climbed back on the bed after cleaning up. He was running his hand over as much of her naked body as he could reach.

"Mhmm?" She was holding his other hand, running her fingers lightly over the lines in his palm and the rings on his fingers.

"We need to get married." He whispered between the kisses he planted on her shoulder. Mackenzie chuckled a little and rubbed the NS ring on his ring finger.

"That's the idea of getting engaged, sweetheart." Mackenzie laughed and kissed his palm softly before rolling over to face him. Jax nodded with a smile before kissing her nose.

"I know that. It's not just that, babe. If we're married, you never have to testify against me or anything. We got intel saying that asshole is trying to get the DA to press charges against me and the club, even though there's no proof we did shit." Jax explained, instantly regretting the hurt in Mackenzie's eyes.

"Jax, I need you here. Abel and I need all of you, not to mention that little one." Mackenzie said, referring to Jax's hand that was rubbing her stomach. Jax nodded and touched his forehead to hers.

"We aren't going anywhere, Mackenzie. I know we haven't even got to talk about wedding plans or what you wanted, but we need to do this quick. I'm sorry baby. We can do something more down the road if you want." Jax said, trying to soften the blow. Mackenzie surprised him by smiling and shaking her head.

"Jax, I don't need the big fancy wedding. All I need is you, Abel, and the rest of our family. At least this way I won't be fat before you marry me, and our daughter doesn't have to have a hyphenated last name." Mackenzie said with a laugh. Jax's brow shot up.

"Daughter? I thought it was to early to tell. I was there, they didn't say what it was." Jax said quickly, excited by the idea of having a little girl. Mackenzie shook her head and patted his chest.

"It is too early, baby. I was just reading old wive's tales about telling the gender. Plus, Abel told me he wants a little sister and she can have a pink motorcycle." She said with a laugh as Jax's face slacked a little.

"That's cute. Well, if it's a girl what do we name her?" Jax asked as Mackenzie crawled under the covers. She smiled and bit her bottom lip.

"Victory." Mackenzie said with a bashful smile. Jax thought it over for a minute before nodding.

"Victory Teller. I think I like it." He said with a smile as he kissed Mackenzie. She nodded and yawned.

"What about a boy? Do you have any boy names?" Mackenzie asked as she snuggled up against Jax. He thought it over for a minute before nodding.

"Sawyer." He said with a yawn of his own. Mackenzie smiled as she thought about what Sawyer or Victory would look like. She drifted off to sleep quickly in Jax's arms.

**Cuteness! I'm happy for Jax and Mackenzie to go down the road to baby together :) Believe me, there's still trouble to come because the Whitman issue still isn't handled, but for now we'll let the love birds nest for a little bit :) thanks for all the awesome reviews :) I keep this going because of you!**


	17. Chapter 17

Mackenzie woke up and reached out for Jax, only to find cold, empty sheets. She let out a small sigh, but decided not to let it get her down. After last night's conversation, she had all intentions of going dress shopping that day. Small wedding or not, she still wanted a wedding dress.

She showered quickly, knowing Abel would be waking soon. Instead of putting her hair up like she had been lately, she blew it out and let it fall in waves down her back. She smiled as she traced on eyeliner and some mascara. Looking in the mirror at her finished efforts, she couldn't help but smile.

To Mackenzie, it was obvious she'd gained some weight after coming to Charming. Despite her previous concerns, she actually liked the way her face seemed less angular and her ribs were less prominent. She ran her hand over her still flat stomach and looked forward to feeling little Victory or Sawyer kick for the first time.

"Mackenzie?" She snapped into reality at the sound of her name and quickly pulled on a tank top and jeans before opening the bedroom door. She looked up and smiled.

"Opie! Hey, sorry I was naked." She said with a laugh as he shook his head. He handed her his open cell phone.

"Hello?" Mackenzie said, a little thrown off by being given Opie's phone.

"Hey babe. We need to get your phone switched out. I don't trust it anymore. What are you planning on doing today?" Jax asked as he flipped through the records that Juice had pulled on Tony.

"I was wanting to go dress shopping. I know we aren't doing anything big, but I still wanted to get a dress. It's the only wedding thing I ever looked forward to. Well, that and cake and getting married." Mackenzie said with a laugh. Opie smirked before turning and going into Abel's room.

"I'm sure it's in that order to. I'm going to send Phil over to ride with Opie. We still haven't found that asshole." Jax said gruffly as he tossed the folder on the desk, realizing it didn't contain anything that would help him find Tony.

"There's no point in arguing so I'm just going to say okay, but he's staying outside. Opie can come in, but not everyone needs to see my dress before you do. Do you think Gemma would want to go with us?" She asked, smiling as she watched Opie carry Abel out of his room and down towards the kitchen.

"Yeah, probably couldn't stop her if you tried. I've gotta go, babe. Have fun shopping, but try not to bore Opie to death." Jax said with a laugh.

"He'll live. Love you." Mackenzie said with an eye roll and a smile. Jax nodded and waved Unser into the chapel.

"I love you to, Mack. Don't leave until Phil gets there." Jax closed the phone and set it on the table before leaning back in his chair and looking up at Unser.

"Thanks for coming by." Jax said as he folded his arms over his chest. Unser raised his brow.

"Not like I had much choice when you send Tig and Happy to escort me. What's on your mind, Jax?" Unser said with a sigh as he stared at the boy turned man he'd known for years.

"The safety of the mother of my unborn child. Where's your new friend?" Jax asked flatly as Clay walked in and took his seat at the head of the table. Unser shook his head and let his arms fall to his side.

"They aren't my friends, Jax. The fact is, they're worried parents, just like you are. Do you know what happened to their son, Jax?" Unser asked, knowing the answer Jax was ready to give.

"Nope, didn't show up here after beating the shit out of Mackenzie and then running away like a bitch." Clay answered for Jax. Unser's eyes widened.

"When she was in the hospital? That's who did that to her?" Unser asked as his stomach tightened. Jax nodded, blowing out a long trail of smoke from his nostrils.

"If they try to pull any shit and I find out you knew where they were, I'm holding you responsible." Clay informed Unser. Wayne Unser knew better than to test Clay. Instead, he nodded and headed out of the clubhouse quickly, sensing he wasn't fully welcome at the present moment.

"So, what type of style were you looking for, Ms. Bradshaw?" The consultant asked Mackenzie with a smile. Mackenzie bit her bottom lip as she glanced over at Gemma before answering.

"Lace and backless." The consultant smiled and nodded as Mackenzie stood up to follow her back towards the rooms of dresses. Opie sighed a little, but followed them behind Gemma. He wished he'd not volunteered, but he promised Mackenzie wouldn't leave his sight.

"Are you the lucky man?" The consultant asked Opie with a smile. He laughed and shook his head.

"He's my brother." Opie said, taking a seat next to Gemma. He was completely out of his element as he sat on the dainty leather couch facing a platform surrounded on three sides by floor to ceiling mirrors. He felt like he was on one of those stupid shows Lyla watched all the time.

"Holy shit." Gemma said as Mackenzie walked out in the first dress. It was an off white, all lace dress with sleeves that covered her hands and fit like a glove. When she stepped up on the podium, Gemma's jaw dropped.

Mackenzie turned her head and looked at her back. The dress framed her back in lace, exposing her entire back until just centimeters above her butt. She ran her hands over the front, smoothing the fabric that clung to her chest and stomach. As tears started welling up in her eyes, she couldn't help but laugh at how stereotypical she was being.

"What do you think?" Mackenzie asked, turning around to face Gemma and Opie. Opie's eyes were wide, but he remained speechless. Gemma was nodding slowly and took a beat before speaking.

"Sweetheart, you're beautiful. I'll beat you if you don't get that dress." Gemma said with a light laugh. Mackenzie laughed as a happy tear fell down her face.

As she stood in that dress, it hit her that the life she was living was real. She wasn't going to wake up. She was marrying the man she loved and having his baby in less than eight months.

Mackenzie turned to the consultant and nodded with a huge smile. The girl was surprised at the quick decision, but smiled as she followed Mackenzie back to help her out of it.

"I don't know how you managed to fit in this dress so perfectly. Personally, I don't even see any alterations that need to be done, unless you prefer some. That will help with your budget, which is always great." She said as she unzipped the dress and Mackenzie stepped out of it.

"How much is it for cash and carry?" Mackenzie asked, knowing that most stores gave deals if you didn't finance it. The consultant looked at the price tag and thought for a minute as she hung it up.

"Right now, it's $3,800. I could do $3,400 for cash and the hot guy's phone number." She said with a wink. Mackenzie laughed and nodded.

"I can't pimp my fiancé's brother out, but $3,400 and it's sold." The consultant pouted a little but quickly smiled and nodded as she opened the dressing room door and followed Mackenzie up front.

"I got it, sweetheart." Gemma said as she pushed Mackenzie's hand away from the counter. Mackenzie narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

"Gemma, I've got it, really." Mackenzie insisted, but Gemma stood her ground and pulled out a roll of cash. Mackenzie sighed as Gemma gently shoved her to the side.

"Doll, this is my way of supporting you and Jaxson's marriage. You're family." Gemma said with a smile as she passed the bills over to the consultant. Mackenzie hugged her and let out an excited giggle as she picked the dress up from the rack. Opie opened the door for she and Gemma before answering his phone.

"Hey, Ope. You dead from boredom yet?" Jax asked with a laugh as he picked at the top of the picnic table with the tip of his knife. Opie laughed nervously.

"Wouldn't say that exactly. We're headed back. Gonna pick Abel up from Lyla's and then Mack wants to come by the clubhouse." Opie said as he sat down on his bike and pulled his helmet on.

"Damn, you got lucky. Last time she drug me shopping, we were there for hours. I'll see you when you get here. Think we've got a lead on Tony." Jax said with a grin as he looked at the address on the sticky note on his knee. The only thing they were waiting for was Happy to get back from Bakersfield and then they'd check the lead out.

"I know you aren't wanting anything big, but have you thought about where this is going to go down?" Gemma asked, peeling her eyes away from the road as Mackenzie sped down the freeway. Mackenzie nodded and turned the radio down.

"The Redwood Forest. I talked to a ranger while we were waiting on you and Phil. He said it wouldn't be a problem and we just have to pay like a hundred and something for a permit. I'm planning on asking Jax when we get back." She said with a nervous smile. Her smile turned into a scowl as she maneuvered around a slower car quickly.

"Don't forget those two behind us, speedy. Jax wouldn't say no if you told him you wanted to do it in the middle of a damn road." Gemma said with a laugh. Mackenzie looked over at her and shrugged with a little laugh.

"I just want to be in nature. Where it's calm and away from everything. Just our family and the trees." Mackenzie said as she leaned back in the seat as she slowed the car to a stop due to the traffic light.

"A hippie with a muscle car. That's a new one." Gemma teased as they pulled into Teller-Morrow. Mackenzie shrugged and cut the engine before getting out and sliding the seat forward to get Abel out of his car seat.

"Mack, you know you shouldn't be picking him up." Jax said as he met her at the back of the car and ruffled Abel's blonde hair. Mackenzie shrugged and gave him a quick kiss before letting go of Abel's hand so he could go join Jessie and her daughter on the playground.

"You couldn't have gotten her a slower car?" Phil asked as he climbed off his bike. Jax looked from Phil to Mackenzie, who shrugged.

"I drive like you ride your bike, so don't give me that look. At least I have a metal cage around me." She said as Opie laughed and shook his head. Jax pulled her to him and kissed her forehead hard before grabbing a handful of her ass.

"I'm glad you came by. I wanted to talk to you about the whole Whitman situation." Jax said seriously as he took Mackenzie's hand and led her to the clubhouse. She groaned silently as they entered his dorm.

"Before we talk about that and I get upset, can I ask you something about the wedding?" Mackenzie asked quickly before Jax had a chance to speak. He let out a breath and nodded.

"Well, I talked to a ranger this morning. We can have it in the Redwoods this weekend. I know it's pretty soon, but." She started to say, until Jax's lips on hers cut her off.

"Yes, Mackenzie. Anywhere you want to go, we can go. As long as you and Abel are there, that's all I need. It's coming up fast, but it needs to baby." He said before kissing her one more time and hugging her close. Her question made him feel even worse about the discussion they were about to have.

"I'm sitting down now. You can hit me with it." Mackenzie said with a deep breath. Jax's smile faded and he leaned against the desk, looking into his old lady's eyes.

"It's not all bad, Mack. The good news is, we found Tony and they're actually headed back to Texas, as far as we know. The bad news is, I may have to go in for a couple months. I don't know for sure yet." Jax said heavily as he watched Mackenzie's face fall.

"When will you know? What happened?" She frowned and walked over to Jax, leaning into his shoulder. He sighed and shook his head.

"It's shit. The DA is trying to use me threatening Tony as an active crime for her RICO case. They don't have shit to process RICO, but regardless, threatening someone can put you away for up to a year, according to Unser. Lohen said she could get it cut down but I'll still probably go in." Jax said, getting angry all over again just talking about it.

"Jesus Christ, Jax. A year? Why haven't they already picked you up if it's for a threat?" Mackenzie asked as thoughts about going through labor without him ran through her mind. He shook his head.

"The more of a case they build, the better chances they have for RICO I guess. I'm not going to lie, we were going to "escort" the Whitmans out of Charming, but this shit stopped that. If we moved on them now, I'd go away for a hell of a lot longer." Jax pushed Mackenzie away a little to look her in the eye. She wasn't crying, but she was definitely paler than normal.

"You can't go in alone, Jax. If you do, you won't make it back." She said bluntly. He was a little surprised by her words, but knew she was right.

"I know, baby. We're going into church in a couple hours to figure some shit out. Happy wants to go with me. Something about having his orders." Jax said a little light hearted, giving Mackenzie a quick wink. She couldn't help laugh a little.

"So this weekend sounds better and better. I know I can't control what happens with the charges." Mackenzie said with a frustrated huff. Jax smiled and nodded before kissing her forehead.

"Exactly. What you can do is stop stressing about it and plan our wedding. I'll make sure everybody is there." Jax squeezed her to him one more time before taking a deep breath and heading towards the door. Mackenzie grabbed his hand and dragged him back to her.

"If you're going to be gone, I might as well get as much of you as I can while you're here." She said as she pushed him back on the bed and kneeled in between his knees. Jax smirked and shook his head as she slid her mouth over his instantly hard dick. He moaned and cleared his mind as he watched her.


	18. Chapter 18

"Stop pacing." Happy growled as he buttoned his black dress shirt. Opie offered Jax a bottle of whiskey, but he just shook his head. They were leaving the clubhouse in twenty minutes to make it to the Redwoods by four.

"Don't know why you're nervous, Jax. Not like you haven't been married before." Bobby said with a shake of his head before giving up on buttoning his shirt the whole way up. Jax sat down in his seat at the table and took a deep breath.

"It's not the same. I don't know what I did to deserve Mackenzie. Couldn't blame her if she wasn't there when we show up." Jax said with a small laugh. Opie smiled and shook his head.

"Nope, Lyla said they're almost ready to leave the hotel." Opie said, texting her back quickly and snapping the phone shut. Jax took a deep breath and nodded before standing up and buttoning his white dress shirt.

"You nervous?" Gemma asked as she glanced over at Mackenize. Her soon to be daughter-in-law looked over and shook her head with a smile.

"Not at all. I've never been more sure about anything in my life." Mackenzie popped a soft kiss on the top of Abel's head as Phil pulled into a parking spot. She felt nervous butterflies in her stomach as she tried to peer around the trees and catch a glimpse of Jax or any of the Sons. Their bikes were parked just to the right of where Phil had parked, so she knew they were there.

"Thanks for driving the car, Lyla." Mackenzie gave the blonde a tight hug as she stepped out of Gemma's SUV and met Lyla at the back. Lyla beamed at Mackenzie and nodded.

"Anytime, sweetheart. I'm so happy for you two. You look gorgeous!" Lyla said as the sun caught Mackenzie's hair. It seemed to glow in a waterfall down her back.

"They're ready." Phil said, walking around to the three women. Mackenzie nodded and gave Abel a quick wave as Lyla and Gemma led him to stand with Jax. She took a deep breath and waited a couple minutes before walking down the path.

Jax waited for Mackenzie in front of a huge, redwood giant. The club and family were seated at large, round tables with navy blue tablecloths and silver chairs. The use of the club's colors didn't go unnoticed by anyone. Abel tugged on Jax's hand. Jax looked up and had to struggle for a breath.

Mackenzie walked down the center of the tables slowly. She was holding a bouquet of white roses and smiling brightly. The sight of Jax and Abel standing a few yards away was almost too much to handle. She heard a loud whistle from one of the tables, and she was willing to bet it was Tig.

"Hey." Jax said with a smile before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. She smiled silently, knowing her voice would betray her if she spoke. As the two stood mere inches apart, the rest of the crowd seemed to disappear. Jax felt lighter than he had in years, even feeling hopeful for the future for the first time since he'd finished reading JT's manuscript.

"Jaxson, I promise to love you and our family for the rest of my life. Wherever this road leads us, I'll always be right by your side. When you need to rest you head, I'll be right there by you. You've made me the happiest woman in the world. I'm yours always and forever." Mackenzie said from memory as she slid a black, carbon fiber ring on Jax's finger.

"Mackenzie, when I'm with you, I'm home. You're the calm to my storm and the light through my rain. I love you more than words can say. You are the best mother I could ever dream of for Abel and our little one." Jax smirked a little and looked out at his brothers.

"I promise to treat you as good as my leather and ride you as much as my Harley." Jax vowed in true SAMCRO fashion as he slid Mackenzie's wedding band on. They didn't wait for the go ahead from the preacher. Jax pulled her into him and kissed her deeply, arching her back just a little.

There were whistles and catcalls from their family and friends as they broke apart and turned to face the crowd. Abel clapped and smiled as Jax picked him up and carried him back down the aisle on his shoulders. Mackenzie looked up at the two of them and smiled brightly. She knew, come hell or high water, she would be there for her family and so would Jax.

The party was moved back to the Redwood clubhouse for the sake of the park. Gemma stuck around for a while, but eventually headed home with Clay and Abel. Jax and Mackenzie milled around the crowd, stopping for introductions every now and then. She hadn't expected it, but several officers from surrounding charters had made their way to the wedding, or at least the reception.

"Congrats, you two." Happy said with a rare smile as he pulled Mackenzie and Jax into hugs. Mackenzie wasn't sure if it was the overwhelming happiness or her hormones, but she started crying when Happy let her go. He looked at her with a lost expression before she kissed him quickly on the cheek and pulled back with a smile.

"Babe, I think it's time we get home. You've got to be tired." Jax said, rubbing his ringed hand over her exposed back. She turned and draped her arms over his shoulders.

"Mr. Teller, you aren't getting out of your vows that easy. I think that Harley's gotten more action than me today." She said with a playful wink. Jax laughed before scooping her up in his arms, much to the delight of the now intoxicated crowd.

No sooner had Jax and Mackenzie stepped into their bedroom, there was a loud knock on the door. Mackenzie felt panic set in as she peered out of the bedroom window. There were blue, flashing lights blazing in the sky. Jax tried to calm her as she rushed for his phone.

"Baby, it's okay. I'm sorry Mackenzie. I don't know why this couldn't have fucking waited until tomorrow." He said as he held her tightly to his chest. He knew if he didn't go to the door soon, they would break it down.

"I love you, Jaxson. Happy's on his way. Don't you dare get in that car before he gets here." Mackenzie said sternly as she reigned her emotions in. If there was one thing she'd learned from Gemma's lecture on the way to the ceremony, it was the importance of being a strong old lady.

Jax held onto Mackenzie's hand as they headed to the front door. He took a deep breath and swung the door open. Mackenzie and Jax were face to face with the San Juaquin County Sheriff, not Unser as they had expected. The sheriff's face contorted with shock as he looked at Mackenzie in her wedding dress and Jax in something besides a hooded sweatshirt or t-shirt.

Mackenzie felt the tightness in her chest loosen a little as she first heard and then watched Happy's bike pull into their driveway. The sheriff tensed as Happy walked right up to the door and stood on Jax's other side.

"These charges are bullshit." Jax growled as he clapped Happy's shoulder before starting to shrug his kutte off to give to Mackenzie. The sheriff's brow raised and he shook his head.

"Not here for you, Teller. Ms. Bradshaw," The sheriff started. Happy shook his head and rested his hand on the grips of his concealed 9mm.

"It's Mrs. Teller, what do you want with my wife?" Jax asked, growing sick to his stomach. The sheriff reached around his back slowly and pulled out a set of cuffs.

"Mrs. Teller, you are under arrest for felony grand theft auto. You have the right to remain silent." The sheriff finished reciting the Miranda Rights as Mackenzie was spun around and cuffed. Jax, Happy and Mackenzie were slow to process what was happening. She shook her head and tears started falling as she pulled against the restraints.

"The fuck. She's pregnant. You can't cuff her like that." Jax yelled as he lunged for the sheriff. Happy caught his arm, although a certain form of torture was flashing behind his eyes as he wished he could get a hold of that cop. Mackenzie did her best to stop her sobbing and looked up at Jax.

"I love you Jaxson. Call Lohen. Please, Jax." She tried to force a smile, but it only made her more nauseous. He nodded adamantly and jumped forward, kissing his wife's lips deeply before she was ripped out of his reach. Happy gave Mackenzie a silent and stoic nod as she looked over at him.

She knew in that moment, that everything was going to be okay. But, in order for that to be true, she would have to get back to her roots. She had to be the girl that grew up on the streets and fought for everything she had. She had to be tough. She had to be an old lady.

**DUN DUN DUN! As always, reviews are always loved and welcomed. I hope you all are coping well with our Sons being over. I know it'll hit me hardest tomorrow night. Happy reading and I hope that somehow, my stories can ease the pain and keep the club alive. Long live SAMCRO**


	19. Chapter 19

"Hey, at least let her fucking change." Happy growled before the sheriff made it off the front steps. He stopped and looked down at Mackenzie before nodding slowly.

"You've got five minutes. You run and this will just be that much worse." The sheriff said as he removed the cuffs. He then motioned for a female officer to follow Mackenzie and Jax inside. Happy stood at the door, staring the sheriff down.

"We'll fix this, baby. There's no way you're sitting in a fucking cell or serving time. Mack, look at me." Jax begged as she peeled her dress off and dug in the closet for a pair of jeans. She was doing her best to stay strong and knew looking into her husband's eyes would make it that much harder.

"Jax, I trust you. Make sure Abel doesn't think I've abandoned him. Just tell him I'll be back soon." Mackenzie's voice almost cracked as she pulled on a pair of dark jeans and a black tank top. She paused in the closet and grabbed one of Jax's hoodies he'd worn the day before. It was conveniently free of blood and it smelled like him. She pulled it over her head and inhaled deeply.

"Let's go, Bradshaw." The female officer snapped through the closed bedroom door. Mackenzie broke the kiss she'd been sharing with Jax and threw the door open so hard it knocked a hole in the wall behind the doorknob.

"You fucking call me that again and see what happens." Mackenzie snapped as she and Jax stormed past the officer, headed towards the front door. Happy hadn't moved since she'd gone to change. As she stole one last hug with Jax, she looked up at Happy.

"This doesn't change anything, Hap." Her voice was stern and Happy nodded, fully aware that the task of keeping Jax safe and out of trouble just got that much harder. She nodded and gave him a quick hug before turning her back to the sheriff to be cuffed.

As soon as the door to the police cruiser closed behind Mackenzie, Jax snapped. He lunged forward in hopes to catch the car and pull his wife back into his arms. Happy had been expecting it and was too fast for Jax. He wrapped an arm across his brother's chest and used all of his strength to hold him back.

Once the cars were out of sight, Happy let Jax go. The furious blonde VP spun around and connected his fist with the side of Happy's jaw in a moment of blind rage. The killer's head turned from the force of the blow, but his expression didn't change, nor did he move to retaliate.

"Feel better?" He asked before spitting into the grass as the taste of blood reached his tongue. Jax shook his head and sighed as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and chose the speed dial for Lohen.

"Hello?" Lohen's voice sounded groggy and disconnected. Jax's eyes narrowed in frustration.

"I need you to get to my house. Now." Jax's tone brought Lohen out of her drowsiness almost immediately. She considered protesting or questioning the biker, but decided his tone hinted that it'd be best if she didn't.

"Give me ten minutes, Jax." With that, he hung up the phone and stormed back inside his now empty house. Happy gave him a few minutes alone, knowing the hot-headed brother needed some space.

Jax went into his and Mackenzie's bedroom and sat down on the bed. The sheets were still in a mess from the previous night and Mackenzie's gun was sitting on her bedside table next to a framed ultrasound picture. He looked down at the dress Mackenzie had been wearing minutes before and frowned.

When he picked it up to hang it in the closet, he realized it was still a little warm from her naturally hot body temperature. He smirked at the memory of teasing her about being a bed heater ever since she got pregnant. After putting the dress away, he grabbed his backpack and stuffed some clothes and Mackenzie's gun in it before leaving the room.

Until she was out and home, Jax refused to sleep in their house. He was set on staying at the clubhouse. As he heard a car pull into the drive, he doubled back to the room and grabbed the ultrasound picture and put it in the bag as well before pulling the bedroom door shut and heading into the living room.

"What's going on?" Lohen asked as she walked into the house behind Happy. He was probably her least favorite son, so seeing Jax was a relief for a change.

Jax filled the casually dressed lawyer in on what he knew about the arrest of his wife. When he was done, she took a few minutes to gather her thoughts before letting out an involuntary sigh.

"She's pregnant and those asses just waltz in here and cuff her? How far along is she?" Lohen asked a particularly agitated Jax Teller. He furrowed his brow.

"Going on eight weeks, why?" He didn't understand why it was any of Lohen's business.

"Legally, they can cuff her until she's six months. What do you know about the charges? Did she steal a car?" Lohen looked over at Jax but avoided his eyes. Young or not, Jax was still volatile and intimidating.

"Mackenzie's high risk though. She drove up from Texas, but I don't know if it was her car or not. It was totaled out." Jax said flatly. He knew Gemma hadn't filed any papers on the tow or disposal of Mackenzie's car. Luckily, his mother's intuition was right for once.

"I'll get in touch with the DA and see what we can do to get her out, at least for her and the baby's health. Give me a couple days, Jax." Lohen went to stand and leave when Jax smacked the table with his ringed hand.

"You've got twenty-four hours. My wife isn't sitting around waiting a couple days. Do what you're paid to. I'd hate to see your services to SAMCRO move elsewhere." Jax's threat had more meaning than a simple end to her hefty retainer payment, and Lohen knew that. She nodded nervously as left the house quickly, feeling uncomfortable as the club's enforcer eyed her back.

Jax grabbed his keys from the coffee table and headed out of the house with his bag on his back. Happy didn't question his plans, but followed in silent support. Jax started the Challenger and waited for Happy to move his bike from behind it before back out.

Instead of heading straight to the clubhouse, Jax turned right and headed out towards the edge of town. Happy followed, hoping this wasn't going to end in bullets flying.

Jax spun the car into the dirt parking lot of Unser Trucking. He didn't bother turning the engine off before jumping out of the car and storming up to the door of the silver airstream. He banged his fist on the door loudly until Wayne Unser threw the door open with a shotgun in his hand.

"Jax? What the hell are you doing? It's after two in the morning." Unser lowered the shotgun and looked around to see Happy standing a few yards away with his arms folded over his chest.

"Did you know about the plans to have my wife arrested?" Jax ignored Unser's questions and stuck to his own agenda. Unser rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. Jax picked up on Unser's uneasy demeanor and slammed his fist into the outside of the airstream.

"Damnit, Jax. No, I didn't know they were going to arrest her. I heard some threats about pressing charges against her or you, but I had no idea they'd arrest her." Unser spoke quickly, hoping to calm the enraged Son at his door. His anxiety wasn't eased by the presence of Happy Lowman.

Jax shook his head and pushed off from the trailer to keep from beating the shit out of a long time friend of SAMCRO. He ran his hand through his slicked back hair and pulled at the ends in frustration.

"If I find out you lied to me, I'll kill you. I don't care what kind of friend you've been in the past." Jax spat before pulling out his 9mm and shooting out the front tire of the trailer. Unser threw his hands up in surrender and frustration. Happy shrugged his shoulders and headed back to his bike once he was sure Jax was going to head back out on the road.

"Is there anything you'd like to tell us? We may be able to help you if you have some information worth trading for a lessened sentence." The sheriff sat down across from Mackenzie with several thick folders. She looked up from the folders to his eyes and shook her head.

"I want my lawyer and my phone call." Mackenzie said for the third time since getting to the Sheriff's Office. The sheriff smiled and leaned forward, passing a folder containing Jax's picture and demographics on the top sheet. Mackenzie pushed it back towards the sheriff and leaned back in the chair.

"Do you realize what type of man your husband is?" The sheriff asked with a raised brow. Mackenzie gave him a stone blank look.

"Look, you must know something about one of them. Let's not even talk about Jackson. What about any of the others?" The sheriff was grasping at straws as he realized Mackenzie wasn't going to crack any time soon. Even at a mere few hours since taking the title, Mrs. Teller was truly an Old Lady.

**Just a quick, short update for everyone before Christmas. Happy holidays to everyone :)**


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